Journal, O let no one shut it!' Early the next day, Oglethorpe led him and others to a rising ground, where they knelt down and gave thanks; and, as soon as the General had taken boat for Savannah, and the rest of the people had come on shore, Wesley invited them to prayers; and again notes in his Journal the wonderful suitableness of the second lesson for that morning (St. Mark vi.) to the circumstances in which he and his company were placed. The directions of our Lord to the twelve whom He sent forth to preach; the courageous fidelity and sufferings of John the Baptist; the toiling of our Lord's followers at sea, and the deliverance vouchsafed to them in the gracious words, "It is I, be not afraid;" all seemed to enforce with more than ordinary power, the duties of obedience, patience, and trust in God.

Quincy was at Savannah when Wesley arrived, but had intimated to the Trustees his desire to return to England. A Memorial from them had been presented to the Society, while Wesley was upon his voyage, setting forth their consent that Quincy should return, and recommending the appointment of Wesley in his room, at the same stipend. The following entry in the Journal of the Society proves the success of their prayer:

Jan. 16, 1736. Agreed, that the Society do approve of Mr. Wesley as a proper person to be a Missionary at Georgia, and that fifty pounds per annum be allowed to Mr. Wesley from the time that Mr. Quincy's salary shall cease.

The Journal also of Wesley, March 15, notes the departure of Quincy for Carolina, and his removal that day into the Minister's house.' The stipend from the Society, it was Wesley's intention at first to decline: his resolution being (as its Journal declares)

'to receive nothing of any man but food and raiment to put on, and those in kind only, that he might avoid, as far as in him lay, worldly desires and worldly cares; but, being afterwards convinced by his friends that he ought to consider the necessities of his flock as well as his own, he thankfully accepted that bounty of the Society, which he needed not for his own personal subsistence".

His brother Charles accompanies

him.

His brother Charles had been sent, a few days before, to Frederica, and, upon the evening of his arrival, gathered the people together for prayers in the open air. Oglethorpe was present; and Charles Wesley, following the example of John, gratefully records, in his Journal, the directions and encouragement supplied in the chapter appointed to be read that evening; "Continue instant in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ -that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.-Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfil it." (Col. iv. 2-6. 17.)

The entry of these and other like passages in his Journal was not always followed by the consistent observance of them. In strong and resolute energy, indeed, Charles Wesley was hardly inferior to his brother. After lying down in a boat that night to snatch a few hours of rest, he is seen, between five

55 Journal, &c. vii. 261.

and six the next morning, reading prayers to a few persons at the fire, before Oglethorpe's tent, in a hard

Whose ministry at

Frederica is brief and

unsuccess

ful.

shower of rain. But, with all this zeal, he was disposed to lord it over his brethren, and make himself the director of their consciences in the minutest transactions of daily life. He tried to force upon them an instant obedience to the literal directions of the Rubric, in matters to which they had been wholly unaccustomed; and this was soon followed by introducing practices for which it gave not any authority at all. The day after he landed, he insisted upon the baptism, by immersion, of all children whose strength could bear it 56; and, four days afterwards, when the consent, which had been reluctantly given, in one instance, to that mode of baptism, was withdrawn, he baptized, before a numerous congregation, another child by trine immersion. He betrayed, also, an indiscreet love of interfering with the petty jealousies and quarrels between husband and wife, and maid-servant and mistress; and, with more than common readiness to take offence, showed a strange want of tact in pro

56 He herein followed the example of his brother, who makes this entry in his Journal:-Feb. 21, 1736. Mary Welch, aged eleven days, was baptized according to the custom of the first Church, and the rule of the Church of England, by immersion. The child was ill then, but recovered from that hour.' Again, May 5, I was asked to baptize a child of Mr. Parker's, second bailiff of Savannah; but Mrs. Parker told me, "Neither Mr. P. nor I will consent to its being dipped." I answered, "If you certify that the child is weak, it will suffice (the Rubric says) to pour water upon it."" She replied, "Nay, the child is not weak, but I am resolved it shall not be dipped." This argument I could not confute, so I went home; and the child was baptized by another person.'

voking it. Before the expiration of the first week, a rough answer from Oglethorpe perplexes and disturbs him; and, instead of being careful to avoid all just causes of annoyance, he contrives, the same day, to 'stumble upon' Oglethorpe again, whilst he was with the men under arms, in expectation of an enemy,' and irritates him yet more. His office of Secretary soon proved so distasteful to him, that, after having passed one whole day in writing letters for Oglethorpe, he declares that he would not spend six days more in the same manner for all Georgia.' Then followed the signal failure of plans which he had looked upon as powerful aids towards the promotion of piety. Four times a day, the drum beat to prayers; and, as might be expected, the scoffer called it hypocrisy, the careless evaded it, and even the well-disposed were annoyed by this constant interruption of their ordinary and needful work. Symptoms of discontent and turbulence soon spread; and threats of desertion were conveyed to the ears of Oglethorpe. Regarding Charles Wesley as author of all the mischief, he sends for him, and complains, that, instead of cultivating love and meekness and true religion among the people, he disturbed and wearied them with 'mere formal prayers.' 'As to that,' replies Wesley, 'I can answer for them, that they have no more of the form of godliness than the power. I have seldom above six at the public service.' That same evening (March 26), Oglethorpe expressed a willingness to attend the prayers; and, seeing that the people came slowly, Wesley said to him, 'You see, Sir, they do not lay too great a stress on forms.' 'The reason of that' (replied Oglethorpe) 'is, because others idolize them.' Wesley expressed his conviction that few stayed away for that reason; but Oglethorpe

evidently believed him to be deceived. Then follows a series of petty and vexatious annoyances, of which it is difficult to believe that Wesley was right in ascribing them all to Oglethorpe. At one time, he complains of being denied the use of a tea-kettle; at another, that Oglethorpe gave away his bedstead from under him, and refused to spare one of the carpenters to mend him up another. The wretched strifes thus provoked, were suspended for a time by the necessity laid upon Oglethorpe to lead an expedition against the Spaniards; and by a reconciliation between him and Wesley, at an interview which, at Oglethorpe's request, took place at his quarters before his departure. But, upon the return of Oglethorpe,although no fresh cause of misunderstanding arose,— Wesley felt that his position was a false one; and, having asked and obtained permission to resign it, left Savannah on the 26th of July, little more than four months after his arrival. The words which concluded the second lesson for that day (St. John xiv.), "Arise, let us go hence," are noted in his Journal as aptly marking the conclusion of his stay in Georgia.

The ministry of John Wesley at Savannah equally unsuccessful.

The course pursued, at the same time, by his brother, although of longer duration, was neither characterised by greater wisdom, nor attended with more success. Instead of regarding his people, as he had been advised to do, as babes in the progress of their Christian life, to be fed with milk instead of strong meat,' it is not too strong language to say with Southey, that 'he drenched them with the physic of an intolerant discipline". Not content with interpreting in their

57 Southey's Life of Wesley, i. 96.