The Young People's Wesley Part 5

Mr. Wesley was a most pertinacious adherent of the English Establishment, and never dreamed of attempting the salvation of souls by preaching the Gospel outside of her church walls until he was ruthlessly expelled from all her pulpits. But he had firmly resolved that neither bishops, nor curates, nor church wardens should stand between him and duty. But what to do and where to go he did not know. Every door seemed closed against him, and almost every face save the face of G.o.d frowned upon him. But while G.o.d smiled he knew no fear. In his extremity he took counsel of Whitefield, resulting in a firm purpose to do the work to which Providence seemed to have clearly called them. Churches were closed, to be sure, but the unsaved and peris.h.i.+ng were everywhere except in the churches, and to reach and to save them they betook themselves to the wide, wide world. They were now seen in hospitals, administering spiritual comfort to the sick; in prisons, offering eternal life to condemned felons; at Kingswood, calling the dark colliers to a knowledge of the truth. In these places unfrequented by sacerdotal robes the Gospel of the grace of G.o.d was carried by these unhonored servants of Jesus. But soon prisons and hospitals were denied them, and then they fled to the fields and to the streets of the cities, choosing for their pulpits the market-house steps, a horse-block, a coal heap, a table, a stone wall, a mountain side, a horse's back, etc.

The colliers of Kingswood had no church, no Sabbath, no Gospel. They were the most corrupt, degraded, blasphemous cla.s.s to be found in England. Southey describes them as "lawless, brutal, and worse than heathen." They seemed to have been forsaken of G.o.d and man. This was a fit place to test the power of "the Gospel of the grace of G.o.d." The intrepid Whitefield was the first to break the ice. "Pulpits are denied," he says, "and the poor colliers are ready to perish." So he unfurled the Gospel banner "with a mountain for his pulpit," he says, "and the broad heavens for a sounding-board."

The Wesleys are lifting up their voices like trumpets in all parts of the kingdom. They are threading their way along the mountains of Wales, where the people know as little of Christianity as do the wild Indians of our Western plains. They are seen in Ireland, in all her towns and cities, calling her papal-cursed sons to a knowledge of Jesus. Again their voices are heard amid the hills and vales of Scotland, urging her stern clans to accept Jesus by faith alone. Then they are surrounded by tens of thousands of besmeared miners who are weeping for sin and rejoicing in deliverance from it.

Mr. Wesley and John Nelson for three weeks labored to introduce the Gospel into Cornwall. During this time they slept on the floor. Nelson says that Mr. Wesley had his great coat for his pillow, while Nelson had Burkitt's _Notes on the New Testament_ for his. After they had been there nearly three weeks, one morning about three o'clock, Mr. Wesley turned over, and finding Nelson awake, clapped him on his side, saying, "Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer; I have one whole side yet, for the skin is off but one side." As they were leaving Cornwall Mr. Wesley stopped his horse to pick blackberries, saying, "Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful that there are plenty of blackberries, for this is the best country I ever saw to get an appet.i.te and the worst place to provide means to satisfy it." Still they courageously pushed forward, with the one purpose of saving men.

That we may aid the reader in getting a clearer and more comprehensive conception of the immense amount of labor performed by Mr. Wesley, we will arrange it under distinct heads:

1. His travels were immense. He averaged, during a period of fifty-four years, about five thousand miles a year, some say eight, making in all at least some two hundred and ninety thousand miles, a distance equal to circ.u.mnavigating the globe about twelve times. It must not be forgotten that most of this travel was performed on horseback. Think of riding around the globe on horseback twelve times!

2. The amount of his preaching was unparalleled. Mr. Wesley preached not less than twenty sermons a week--frequently many more. These sermons were delivered mostly in the open air and under circ.u.mstances calculated to test the nerve of the most vigorous frame. He did, in the matter of preaching, what no other man ever did--he preached on an average, for a period of fifty-four years, fifteen sermons a week, making in all forty-two thousand four hundred, besides numberless exhortations and addresses on a great variety of occasions.

A minister in these times does well to preach one hundred sermons a year. At this rate, to preach as many sermons as Mr. Wesley did, such a minister must live and preach four hundred and twenty-four years. Think of a minister preaching two sermons each week day and three each Sabbath for fifty-four years, and some idea can be formed of Mr. Wesley's labors in this department.

3. His literary labors were extraordinary. While traveling five thousand miles and more a year, or at least about fourteen miles a day, and preaching two sermons, and frequently five, each day, he read extensively. He read not less than two thousand two hundred volumes on all subjects, many of the volumes folios, after the old English style.

His journals show that he read not only to understand, but to severely criticise his author as well.

The number of his publications will scarcely be credited by those who are not familiar with them, especially when we consider the amount of time he spent in traveling and preaching, and the urgency of his engagements, both of a public and private nature.

He wrote and published grammars of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and English languages.

He was for many years editor of a monthly periodical of fifty-six pages, known as the _Arminian Magazine_, requiring the undivided attention of any ordinary man in these times.

He wrote, abridged, revised, and published a library of fifty volumes known as the _Christian Library_, one of the most remarkable collections of Christian literature of the times. He subsequently reread and revised the whole work with great care, and it was afterward published in thirty volumes--a marvel of excellence and industry.

He published an abridgment of Mosheim's _Ecclesiastical History_, with important additions, in four volumes.

He published an abridgment of the _History of England_, in four volumes.

He compiled and published a _Compendium of Natural Philosophy_, in five volumes.

He arranged and published a collection of moral and sacred poems, in three volumes.

He published an abridgment of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, with notes. He published an abridgment of Young's _Night Thoughts_.

He wrote and published a commentary on the whole Bible in four large volumes, but the portion on the Old Testament was rendered almost worthless by the abridgment of the notes by the printer in order to get them within a given compa.s.s.

He compiled a complete dictionary of the English language, much used in his day. He compiled and published a history of Rome. He published selections from the Latin cla.s.sics for the use of students.

He published an abridgment of Goodwin's _Treatise of Justification_. He abridged and published in two volumes Brooke's _Fool of Quality_.

He wrote a good-sized work on electricity. He prepared and published three medical works for the common people; one ent.i.tled _Primitive Physic_ was highly esteemed in the old country. He compiled and published six volumes of church music. His poetical works, in connection with those of his brother Charles, are said to have amounted to not less than forty volumes. Charles composed the larger part, but they pa.s.sed under the revision of John, without which we doubt if Charles Wesley's hymns would have been what they are--the most beautiful and soul-inspiring in the English language.

In addition to all this there are seven large octavo volumes of sermons, letters, controversial papers, journals, etc. It is said that Mr.

Wesley's works, including translations and abridgments, amounted to more than two hundred volumes, for we have not given here a complete list of his publications. To this must be added:

4. His pastoral labors. It is doubtful if any pastor in these times does more pastoral work than did Mr. Wesley. He speaks frequently of these labors. In London he visits all the members, and from house to house exhorts and comforts them. For some time he visited all the "Bands" and "Select Societies," appointing all the band and cla.s.s leaders. He had under his personal care tens of thousands of souls.

To these multiplied labors he added the establishment of schools, building of chapels, raising of funds to carry on the work, and a special care over the whole movement. It may be affirmed that neither in his travels, his literary labors, his preaching, nor in his pastoral supervision of the flock of Christ has he often, if ever, been surpa.s.sed. "Few men could have traveled as much as he, had they omitted all else. Few could have preached as much without either travel or study. And few could have written and published as much had they avoided both travel and preaching." It is not too much to say that among uninspired men one of more extraordinary character than John Wesley never lived!

It may be asked, How was he able to accomplish so much? He improved every moment of every day to the very best advantage.

Mr. Fletcher, who for some time was his traveling companion, says: "His diligence is matchless. Though oppressed with the weight of seventy years and the care of more than thirty thousand souls, he shames still, by his unabated zeal and immense labors, all the young ministers of England, perhaps of Christendom. He has generally blown the Gospel trumpet and ridden twenty miles before the most of the professors who despise his labors have left their downy pillows. As he begins the day, the week, the year, so he concludes them, still intent upon extensive services for the glory of the Redeemer and the good of souls."

In order to save time he, in the first place, ascertained how much sleep he needed; and when once settled he never varied from it to the end of life. He rose at four in the morning and retired at ten in the evening, never losing at any time, he says, "ten minutes by wakefulness." The first hour of each day was devoted to private devotions; then every succeeding hour and moment was employed in earnest labor. His motto was, "Always in haste, but never in a hurry." "I have," he says, "no time to be in a hurry. Leisure and I have taken leave of each other."

He makes the remarkable statement that ten thousand cares were no more weight to his mind than ten thousand hairs to his head. "I am never tired with writing, preaching, or traveling."

With all his travel, labor, and care, he declares that he "enjoyed more hours of private retirement than any man in England."

At the beginning of his extraordinary career he became the most rigid economist. Having thirty pounds a year, he lived on twenty-eight, and gave away two. The next year he received sixty pounds; he still lived on twenty-eight, and gave away thirty-two. The following year, out of ninety pounds, he gave away sixty-two, and the next year ninety-two pounds out of one hundred and twenty.

CHAPTER IX.

WESLEY'S DOMESTIC RELATIONS.

DIVINE Providence seems to indicate that some men are ordained or set apart to celibacy; that the special work to which they are particularly called is such as to make it necessary that they should abstain from that otherwise legal, sacred, and highly honorable conjugal relation.

Not that this duty is restricted to any order of the clergy--as in the Romish Church--but to particular persons in all the Churches who are divinely selected for special work. This was the case with Elijah and Elisha, with John the Baptist and St. Paul. To John Wesley in the Old World, and Bishop Asbury in the New, Providence seems to have indicated this course of life, though Wesley was slow to see it, and did not until his sad experience made it clear to him.

Though the world was his parish, he had a heart of love which craved deep, pure, soul companions.h.i.+p. He was made to love. Though he was a lamb in gentleness, he was a lion in courage. He was as daring as Richard the Lion-hearted, or as Ney or Murat, in the battle, yet he had a heart as simple as a child and as affectionate as an angel. He loved everybody. He was strongly attached to his mother, his sisters, and brothers. He clung ardently to his old a.s.sociates, though they sometimes ill-treated him. With such a man a homeless, single life could only be submitted to under a sense of imperative duty.

After forty-seven years of single life, being of the opinion that he could be more useful in the married life than to remain single, and after first consulting his lifelong friend, Rev. Mr. Perronet, vicar of Sh.o.r.eham, who fully approved his course, he then looked about to see who was a suitable person to become his helpmate. After a time he firmly believed he had found the proper one in the person of Mrs. Grace Murray, of Newcastle. She was the widow of Alexander Murray, of Scotland.

Mrs. Murray had been converted, while on a visit to London, under the ministry of Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys. She at once joined the Methodists, abandoned all worldly and fas.h.i.+onable society, and devoted herself to the cause of G.o.d. It is true she was not allied to the aristocracy, and her husband followed the sea. Her husband, when he learned of her change, became greatly enraged, thinking all his pleasures were at an end, and threatened, if she did not abandon the Methodists and return to her former course of life, that he would commit her to the madhouse. This nearly broke her heart, and under its influence she became prostrated and sick nigh unto death. Her husband, seeing the effects of his treatment, relented, and invited the Methodists to come to his house and pray for his dying wife. Under a change of treatment, and the blessing of G.o.d, she recovered. The husband soon after left for a sea voyage, was taken sick, died, and was buried in the ocean. She sadly mourned his untimely death, for, in the main, he was a kind husband.

It was about this time that Mr. Wesley became acquainted with her, and recognized in her a valuable helper. She seems to have been a charming lady. Her deep piety, simplicity of character, amiable disposition, remarkable zeal, and active charity attracted his attention. He maintained at Newcastle a Preachers' House for himself and his preachers while in the city. He had there, also, an asylum for orphans and widows, for whom he made provision. Over this inst.i.tution he installed Mrs.

Murray as housekeeper. Finding her admirably suited to this work, especially among females, he appointed her cla.s.s leader. She then, under his direction, visited the female cla.s.ses in Bristol, London, etc. Her duty was to regulate the cla.s.ses, organize female bands, and inspire her sisters to deeper piety and more active benevolence. Her devotion and una.s.suming manners won the affection of the people. They hailed her coming with a thousand welcomes, and parted with her with regret.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WESLEY'S CLOCK.]

Mr. Wesley observed her spirit and labors, and began to feel that she was the providential companion for him--a real helpmate. Her tastes, temperament, and mission seemed to be one with his own. Without hesitation or reserve he offered her his hand. It was accepted with great cheerfulness. She declared herself ready to go with him to the ends of the earth, and esteemed it a great honor to be allied to him.

The marriage was to be celebrated in October, 1749. But on the first day of that month he met Charles Wesley and Mr. Whitefield at Leeds, and received the astounding intelligence from them that Grace Murray was married the night before, at Newcastle, to John Bennett--one of Wesley's preachers--and that they had been present and witnessed the marriage ceremony.

This singular affair has never been satisfactorily explained. It is evident that Charles Wesley and Mr. Whitefield for some cause encouraged the marriage of Mrs. Murray with Mr. Bennett; but what their motive could have been is not known. Several reasons have been given, but none seem worthy of the men. Whatever their motive, it must be acknowledged to have been entirely unjustifiable. The conduct of the lady was equally inexplicable, and must ever remain so.

In this trying affair we cannot but admire the conduct of Mr. Wesley.

Knowing the part that Mr. Whitefield had taken in the matter, he went the next morning to hear him preach, and speaks in high terms of his sermon. The day following he preached himself at Leeds in the morning, and in the afternoon met Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, and of the meeting he writes to a friend, "Such a scene I think you never saw." They never met again, except in London in 1788, when Mr. Wesley was eighty-five years of age, and when Mrs. Bennett had been a widow for nearly twenty-nine years. The meeting was brief, and no mention was made of former years.

Mr. Bennett was treated by Mr. Wesley with the utmost kindness. He, however, became an enemy of Mr. Wesley, withdrew from the Connection, and joined the Calvinists. He lived ten years, and died, leaving Mrs.

Bennett a widow with five children, the eldest not eight years old. She lived a widow for nearly forty-four years. She subsequently returned to the Wesleyan Methodists, held cla.s.s meetings in her house, and had the reputation of being a woman of excellent character and deep piety. She died February 23, 1803. Her last words were, "Glory be to thee, my G.o.d; peace thou givest." Dr. Bunting preached her funeral sermon. Whoever reads Mr. Tyerman's account of these events should also read Dr. Rigg's _Living Wesley_, in order to get an unbiased account of this transaction.

Mr. Wesley, baffled in his first attempt, and still believing it was his duty to marry, made a second effort; and this time he offered his hand to Mrs. Vazeille, the widow of a London merchant. She readily accepted the proposal, and the marriage was at once consummated. Says a recent writer, "He married a widow, and caught a tartar." She was a lady of independent fortune, with four children. Mr. Wesley declined to have anything to do with her wealth, and had it all settled upon herself and her children.