Whitefield and the Wesleys. 33 1749 at the highest wine mark; and gaming is joined with it so violently, that, at the last Newmarket meeting, a bank bill Age 46 was thrown down, and nobody immediately claiming it, they agreed to give it to a man standing by." 1 1 Whitefield wrote: "I am a debtor to all, and intend to be at the head of no party. I believe my particular province is, to go about and preach the gospel to all. My being obliged to keep up a large correspondence in America, and the necessity I am under of going thither myself, entirely prevent my taking care of any societies. I profess to be of a catholic spirit. I have no party to be at the head of, and, through God's grace, will have none; but, as much as in me lies, strengthen the hands of all, of every denomination, that preach Jesus Christ in sincerity." 2 His wife arrived from America at the end of June; and, a few weeks afterwards, he set out for the north of England. In Grimshaw's church, at Haworth, he had a thousand communicants; and, in the churchyard, about six thousand hearers. In Leeds, his congregation consisted of above ten thousand. On his way to Newcastle, Charles Wesley met him, and, returning with him, introduced him to the Orphan House pulpit. Under the date of October 8, Charles writes: "The Lord is reviving His work as at the beginning. Multitudes are daily added to His church. George Whitefield, my brother, and I, are one; a threefold cord, which shall no more be broken. The week before last, I waited on our friend George at our house in Newcastle, and gave him full possession of our pulpit and people's hearts, as full as was in my power to give. The Lord united all our hearts. I attended his successful ministry for some days. He was never more blessed, or better satisfied. Whole troops of the Dissenters he mowed down. They also are so reconciled to us, as you cannot conceive. The world is confounded. The hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. At Leeds, we met my brother, who gave honest George the right hand of fellowship, and attended him everywhere to our societies. Some at London will be alarmed at 1 Walpole's Letters, vol. ii., p. 155. 2 Whitefield's Works, vol. ii., pp. 220, 252, 282-284, 291. VOL. II. D 1749 the news; but it is the Lord's doing, as they will by-and-by Age 46 acknowledge."1 Rightly or wrongly, we thus find Whitefield disassociated from all churches and all societies,-the friend of all, the enemy of none,-an evangelist, not a pastor, making it the one business of his life to spread gospel truth, and to convert sinners from sin to holiness, and from the power of Satan unto God. Wesley intended to visit Rotterdam at the beginning of 1749; but was prevented by a request that he would write an answer to Dr. Middleton's book against the fathers. He says: "I spent almost twenty days in that unpleasing employment." In the middle of the month of February, he and his brother, and Charles Perronet, set out from London for Mr. Gwynne's, in Wales, for the purpose of making final arrangements for Charles's marriage. John's proposal was to give his brother security for the payment of £100 per annum out of the profits of their publications. This was accepted as satisfactory, and Mr. Gwynne and Mr. Perronet were to act as the trustees. Miss Sally Gwynne promised to let Charles continue his vegetable diet and his travelling; and, though Mrs. Gwynne wished to stipulate that he should not go again to Ireland, this, at her daughter's request, was not enforced. It is a fact, however, that, for some reason, Charles Wesley never visited Ireland after he became the son-in-law of Mrs. Gwynne. Having completed the negotiations for his brother's marriage, Wesley hurried off to Bristol; and, at Kingswood, collected together seventeen of his preachers, whom he divided into two classes, for the purpose of reading lectures to them every day, during Lent, as he had formerly done to his pupils at Oxford. To one class, he read Bishop Pearson on the Creed; to the other, Aldrich's Logic; and to both, "Rules for Action and Utterance." About a month seems to have been spent in this ministerial training. Who were Wesley's favoured pupils? This is a question we cannot answer; but, from the books selected, we learn that Wesley's object was-(1) To 1 Methodist Magazine, 1848, p. 639. Charles Wesley's Marriage. 35 teach theology; (2) the science of reasoning; (3) the art of elocution. Leisure hours were occupied in making preparations for the "Christian Library," and in preaching in the surrounding neighbourhood. Once a week, also, he spent an hour with the assembled children of the four Kingswood schools; namely, the boys boarded in the new house, the girls boarded in the old, the boys in the day-school taught by James Harding, and the girls taught in the day-school by Sarah Dimmock.1 Lent terminated on the 26th of March, and, a week afterwards, he returned to Wales for the purpose of performing his brother's marriage. This took place on the 8th of April, and was, in all respects, a happy one, though there was a considerable disparity in age, Charles being forty, and his bride only twenty-three. Her father was a respected magistrate; her mother an heiress of £30,000. The change from her father's mansion to a small house in Bristol was great; but she loved her husband, and was never known to regret the comforts she had left behind her. She became the mother of eight children: five died in infancy; three survived their parents, and, by their distinguished talent, added lustre even. to the name of Wesley. She died on December 28, 1822, at the age of ninety-six. Her long life was an unbroken scene of devoted piety in its loveliest forms; and her death equally calm and beautiful. Two days after his brother's marriage, Wesley set out for Ireland, where he landed at three o'clock on Sunday morning, April 16, and, on the same day, preached thrice to the Dublin Methodists. Having spent a fortnight in the city, where the members had increased from four hundred to four hundred and forty-nine, he started off on a visit to the provincial societies. At Edinberry, he had "an exceedingly well behaved congregation," including "many Quakers," and took the appropriate text, "They shall be all taught of God." At Athlone, his audience comprised seven or eight of the ' Charles Wesley, in a letter dated the 3rd of March, 1749, says: "I spent half-an-hour with my brother at Kingswood, which is now very much like a college. Twenty-one boarders are there, and a dozen students, his sons and pupils in the gospel. I believe he is now laying the foundations of many generations.”—Watchman, Feb. 18, 1835. 1749 Age 46 1749 officers, and many of the soldiers of the regiment to which Age 46 John Nelson had been attached. Great numbers of papists also attended, maugre the labour of their priests. Several sinners were converted, including a man, who, for many years, had been "eminent for cursing, swearing, drinking, and all kinds of fashionable wickedness." At Limerick, Wesley preached to about two thousand people, not one of whom either laughed, or looked about, or minded anything except the sermon. Here the society had taken a lease of an old abbey, and had turned it into a Methodist meeting-house. He met a class of soldiers, eight of whom were Scotch Highlanders; and was introduced to a gentlewoman of unspotted character, who, for two years, had fancied herself forsaken of God, and possessed with devils; and who blasphemed and cursed, and vehemently desired and yet was afraid to die. Of the Limerick society, he writes: "The more I converse with this people, the more I am amazed. That God hath wrought a great work among them, is manifest; and yet the main of them, believers and unbelievers, are not able to give a rational account of the plainest principles of religion. It is plain, God begins His work at the heart; then 'the inspiration of the Highest giveth understanding.' Having employed seventeen days in Limerick, Wesley, on the 29th of May, set out for Cork; but, on the way, Charles Skelton met him, with the tidings that, in consequence of the late riots (which will be noticed presently), it was now impossible to preach in that city. Wesley was not to be deterred; but he had no sooner entered than "the streets, and doors, and windows were full of people." Prudently enough, instead of staying, he rode on to Bandon, a town entirely inhabited by Protestants, where he had, by far, the largest congregations he had seen in Ireland. Here he met a clergyman, who had come twelve miles purposely to talk with him. All, however, was not smooth sailing even at Bandon. Dr. B- averred (1) That both John and Charles Wesley had been expelled the university of Oxford. (2) That there was not a Methodist left in Ireland, except in Cork and Bandon, all the rest having been rooted out, by order of the government. (3) That neither were there any Methodists left in England. And (4) that Methodism was all Jesuitism at the bottom. Wesley 1749 took the opportunity of replying to these slanderous falsehoods; and then proceeded to Blarney, where he found Age 46 another rumour, that the Methodists placed all religion in wearing long whiskers. At Brough, he preached to "some stocks and stones"; and then got back to Limerick, whose society he pronounces the liveliest people he had found in Ireland. Here he "spent four comfortable days," when, having appointed himself to preach at Nenagh, he was obliged to leave; and, for want of better accommodation, was glad to ride on horseback behind "an honest man," who overtook him as he trudged on foot. At Gloster, he preached “in the stately saloon" of a beautiful mansion, built by an English gentleman. At Ferbane, where he meant to dine, he stopped at two different inns, but found that " they cared not to entertain heretics." Again reaching Athlone, he preached in the new built chapel, and, towards the close of his discourse, cried out, "Which of you will give yourself, soul and body, to God?" Mrs. Glass responded, with a cry that almost shook the house, "I will, I will." Two others followed, and the scene became most exciting. Numbers began to cry aloud for mercy, and, in four days, more found peace with God than had done in sixteen months before. At Portarlington, a town chiefly inhabited by French, he met a clergyman, who was a defender of the Methodists, and formed a society of above a hundred persons. More than nine weeks were occupied in this excursion. On the 5th of July, Wesley got back to Dublin, and, a fortnight afterwards, returned to England; but, before leaving Ireland, we must recur to Cork. For some time, Methodism, in Cork, met with no serious opposition; but, at length, by the secret plottings of the clergy, the town corporation was moved, and a ballad singer of the name of Butler was engaged to be the leader of a mob. This despicable fellow, dressed in a parson's gown and bands, with a Bible in one hand and a bundle of ballads in the other, sang and vended, in the streets, doggerel rhymes, stuffed with the vilest lies respecting the Methodists; and, by this means, inflamed the populace against them. On the 3rd of May, Butler and his ragged retinue assembled at the Methodist |