of men. I sit down alone. Only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book; for this end, to find the way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read? Does any thing appear dark or intricate? I lift up my heart to the Father of lights, Lord, is it not thy word, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God? Thou givest liberally, and upbraidest not. Thou hast said,

If any be willing to do thy will, he shall know. I I am willing to do, let me know thy will.' I then search after, and consider, parallel passages of Scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. I meditate thereon with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable. If any doubt still remain, I consult those who are experienced in the things of God; and then the writings whereby being dead they yet speak. And what I thus learn, that I teach."

With respect to the right manner of preaching, he thus speaks in his notes on our Lord's Sermon upon the Mount: "Through this whole discourse

we cannot but observe the most exact method which can possibly be conceived. Every paragraph, every sentence, is closely connected with that which precedes, and that which follows it. And is not this the pattern to every Christian Preacher? If any,

then, are able to follow it without any premeditation, well; if not, let them not dare to preach without it. No rhapsody, no incoherency, whether the things spoken be true or false, comes from the Spirit of Christ."

The Wesleys preached and exhorted, that they might make the most unlettered of their hearers understand the true nature of Christianity, and induce them to work out their salvation with fear and trem

bling; and they felt that unless they succeeded in this, they only spent their strength for nought. They engaged in the duties of the ministry under a deep sense of their responsibility both to God and man, and left all self-display and artificial modes of address to the vain men who seek their reward in popular admiration.

Mr. John Wesley's severe labours excited the kind sympathy of one of the Irish Prelates, who ordained Mr. Thomas Maxfield, the first of the LayPreachers, Priest; saying, at the same time, "Mr. Maxfield, I ordain you to assist that good man, (Mr. Wesley,) that he may not work himself to death." *

CHAPTER IV.

THE REVIVAL AND SPREAD OF RELIGION THROUGH THE LABOURS OF THE TWO WESLEYS, AND OF THEIR CO-ADJUTORS.

AMONG other significant directions which Mr. Wesley gave to his Preachers was this:-" Go always, not only to those who want you, but to those who want you most." He adopted the same principle as the rule of his own proceedings; and hence he went, not to those places where he was likely to meet with a kind reception, but where the people were the most ignorant, wicked, and neglected. In those times the criminal law of England was terribly sanguinary. Executions were numerous and frequent; and to the end of their lives the brothers were in the habit of visiting convicts under sentence * Wesley's Works, vol. iii. p. 131.

of death, and of affectionately pointing them to the throne of the divine mercy, from which no penitent and believing suppliant was ever sent empty away. They felt that Christ's atonement met all the necessities of the most guilty and abject of mankind. With the same feeling they visited, in the first instance, the most wretched of the uninstructed masses in the mining and manufacturing districts, and then the more scattered population in other parts of the land. It often happened that their clerical garb failed entirely to secure for them the slightest respect, and their lives were in the greatest jeopardy. In not a few instances the Clergy, forgetting what was becoming in the character which they sustained, were directly concerned in exciting the hostility of mobs against them, particularly in Staffordshire; and at Epworth, the Clergyman, in a state of drunkenness assaulted Mr. Wesley before a thousand people assembled together in the church, and drove him away from the Lord's table, because he preached in the fields. Yet the brothers, with admirable calmness and fidelity, pursued their course of duty "through good report, and through evil report; and lived to see nearly the whole land, including the Isle of Man, and the Norman Islands, divided into Circuits, and regularly occupied by their zealous, intrepid, and self-denying fellow-labourers. Numerous societies were also formed, the members of which submitting to a system of godly discipline and order, were every where seen "walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost."

Perhaps the most distinguished and honourable convert of whom the devoted brothers could boast was their venerable mother; a woman of great personal beauty, of high moral worth, and of a very

strong and cultivated mind. On the third of September 1739, Mr. John Wesley says, "I talked largely with my mother, who told me that, till a short time since, she had scarce heard such a thing mentioned, as the having forgiveness of sins now, or God's Spirit bearing witness with our spirit: much less did she imagine that this was the common privilege of al true believers. 'Therefore,' said she, 'I never durst ask for it myself. But two or three weeks ago, while my son Hall was pronouncing those words, in delivering the cup to me, The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee, the words struck through my heart, and I knew God for Christ's sake had forgiven me all my sins.'

"I asked whether her father (Dr. Annesley) had not the same faith; and whether she had not heard him preach it to others. She answered, he had it himself; and declared a little before his death, that for more than forty years he had no darkness, no fear, no doubt at all, of his being accepted in the Beloved; but that, nevertheless, she did not remember to have heard him preach, no, not once, explicitly upon it. Whence she supposed he also looked upon it as the peculiar blessing of a few; not as promised to all the people of God.” *

A few days after this conversation she accompanied her son John to Kennington, and heard him preach in the open air, to nearly twenty thousand people. About three years afterwards, she died in the faith and hope of the Gospel; having "no doubt, or fear, nor any desire but (as soon as God should call) to depart and to be with Christ.” On the day of her death, says Mr. John Wesley, "I went to my mother, and found her change was near. I sat down

Works, vol. i. pp. 222, 223.

on the bed-side. She was in her last conflict, un-able to speak, but, I believe quite sensible. Her look was calm and serene, and her eyes fixed upward, while we commended her soul to God. From three to four the silver cord was loosing, and the wheel breaking at the cistern; and then, without any struggle, or sigh, or groan, the soul was set at liberty. We stood round the bed, and fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she lost her speech, 'Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.'

Having given an account of her funeral, he adds, "We set up a plain stone at the head of her grave, inscribed with the following words: Here lies the body of Mrs. Susanna Wesley, the youngest and last surviving daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley.

'IN sure and certain hope to rise,

And claim her mansion in the skies,
A Christian here her flesh laid down,
The cross exchanging for a crown.

'True daughter of affliction, she,
Inured to pain and misery,

Mourn'd a long night of griefs and fears,
A legal night of seventy years.

The Father then reveal'd his Son,

Him in the broken bread made known:
She knew and felt her sins forgiven,
And found the earnest of her heaven.

'Meet for the fellowship above,
She heard the call, Arise, my love!
I come, her dying looks replied,

And lamblike as her Lord she died.'"

By some writers these lines have been severely criticised, as not doing justice to the high intellectual character of this very excellent woman; and by