1763 on record. The Thames was so covered with ice, that pasAge 60 sengers and carriages crossed from one shore to the other; and booths were erected, and fairs held, on the river's iceglazed surface. Navigation was entirely stopped, and many thousands of watermen, with their families, were plunged into extreme distress. In some places, the ice was measured, and found to be six feet thick. Sea gulls came up as high as London Bridge; and other birds, in great numbers, were driven from their usual haunts, and were seen in the streets of the metropolis. Many persons were frozen to death; and large bodies of famished men wandered throughout the capital, begging bread and clothes.1 Wesley was not the man to witness such suffering without endeavouring to relieve it. “Great numbers,” says Lloyd's Evening Post, "of poor people had pease pottage and barley broth given them at the Foundery, at the expense of Mr. Wesley; and a collection. was made, in the same place of worship, for further supplying the necessities of the destitute, at which upwards of £100 was contributed."2 Considering the value of money at that period, this was not amiss for the poor Foundery Methodists. A third incident must be mentioned. We have just seen Wesley trying to relieve misery; we shall now see him endeavouring to put an end to vice. The Society for the Reformation of Manners was first instituted about the year 1677.3 From 1730 to 1757, the society was defunct. In the last mentioned year, and perhaps as one of the results of Methodism, it was revived. The approbation of the lord mayor of London, and of the court of aldermen, was obtained. Thousands of books of instruction were sent to parish officers and parish constables, to remind them of their duty. The laws against immorality were again enforced. Streets, and fields, and public houses were swept of their notorious offendIn five years, about ten thousand persons were brought to justice, chiefly for gambling, swearing, sabbath breaking, lewdness, and selling obscene engravings.

ers.

There can be little doubt that Wesley was connected with

1 London Magazine, 1763, p. 48.

Lloyd's Evening Post, Jan. 26, 1763.

3 For a full account of the society, see the "Life and Times of the Rev. Samuel Wesley,” pp. 213–224.

the revival of this useful association. At all events, in 1763, 1763 when the society consisted of one hundred and sixty members, Age 60 nearly half of that number were Methodists.1 On January 30, the society met at Wesley's chapel, in West Street, Seven Dials; where he preached, before its members, the annual sermon, taking as his text the very scripture which had been selected by his father, when performing the same service sixtyfive years before: "Who will rise up with me against the wicked?" Wesley attached considerable importance to this sermon, as is seen from the fact, that he retired to Lewisham to compose and write it, and that it was immediately published in an octavo pamphlet of thirty pages. Three years afterwards, the society, a second time, ceased to be; chiefly through an action instituted against it in the King's Bench, where an adverse verdict was obtained, by the false swearing of a man whom the society subsequently convicted of wilful perjury. Still the death blow to the society was struck. Wesley writes: "They could never recover the expense of that suit. Lord, how long shall the ungodly triumph?"

In the early part of the year 1763, a shameful fraud was attempted upon Wesley, and is referred to in the following letter, published in the London Chronicle.

"April 5, 1763.

"SIR, Some time since, I heard a man in the street bawling, 'The Scripture Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness, asserted and maintained by the Rev. John Wesley.' I was a little surprised, not having published anything on the head; and more so when, upon reading it over, I found not one line of it was mine, though I remembered to have read something like it. Soon after, to show what I really do maintain, I published 'Thoughts on the Imputed Righteousness of Christ': mentioning therein that 'pious fraud,' which constrained me so to do.

"The modest author of the former publication now prints a second edition of it, and faces me down before all the world, yea, and proves, that it is mine.

"Would you not wonder, by what argument? Oh, the plainest in the world. There is not,' says he, 'the least fraud in the publication, nor imposition on Mr. Wesley; for the words are transcribed from the ninth and tenth volumes of his Christian Library.' But the Christian Library is

1 The figures were: Whitefield's followers, about 20; Wesley's, about 50; Churchmen, about 20; Dissenters, about 70.

1763 not Mr. Wesley's writing; it is 'Extracts from and Abridgments of' Age 60 other writers; the subject of which I highly approve, but I will not be accountable for every expression. Much less will I father eight pages of I know not what, which a shameless man has picked out of that work, tacked together in the manner he thought good, and then published in my name. He puts me in mind of what occurred some years since. A man was stretching his throat near Moorfields, and screaming out: 'A full and true Account of the Death of the Rev. George Whitefield.' One took hold of him, and said: 'Sirrah! what do you mean? Mr. Whitefield is yonder before you.' He shrugged up his shoulders, and said: 'Why, sir, an honest man must do something to turn a penny.'

"I am, sir, your humble servant,

"JOHN WESLEY.”1

On the 16th of May, a month later than usual, Wesley left London for the north. By travelling in postchaises, he reached Newcastle in three days, and in three more came to Edinburgh, where he had an interview with his old friend Whitefield. He writes: "Humanly speaking, he is worn out; but we have to do with Him who hath all power in heaven and earth."

During the ten days which he spent in Scotland, Wesley preached at Aberdeen, in the college close, and in the college hall; and wrote: "What an amazing willingness to hear runs through this whole kingdom. There want only a few zealous, active labourers, who desire nothing but God; and they might soon carry the gospel through all this country, even as high as the Orkneys."

At Edinburgh, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland were holding their annual conference, and many of the ministers, nobility, and gentry flocked together to hear Wesley preach in the High School yard, at seven a.m. He says: "I spake as plain as ever I did in my life. But I never knew any in Scotland offended at plain dealing. In this respect, the north Britons are a pattern to all mankind."

One of Wesley's hearers, on this occasion, was Lady Frances Gardiner, the widow of the renowned Colonel Gardiner, who fell at the battle of Preston Pans. A month afterwards, this Christian lady wrote to him, congratulating him on sending Mr. Hanby and Mr. Roberts to Edinburgh,

1 London Chronicle, April 5, 1763.

where their labours had been greatly blessed; and then adding: "I have never, I own, been at the preaching house in a morning yet, as they preach so early; but I ventured to the High School yard the morning you left Edinburgh; and it pleased God, even after I got home, to follow part of your sermon with a blessing to me."1

A year later, Wesley formed an acquaintance, at Edinburgh, with Lady Maxwell, who about the year 1761 had been left a widow, at nineteen years of age. She now became a Methodist; and, in 1770, for the purpose of affording a Christian education to poor children, she established a school in Edinburgh, which she liberally sustained for forty years; and, at her death, made provision for its existence to the end of time.2 In the same year, Wesley was introduced to Lady Glenorchy, who also, a few months afterwards, became a widow at the age of thirty-one, and opened a chapel, which had been a popish church, for the supply of which Wesley obtained the services of the Rev. Richard de Courcy; the agreement being that, while this young minister of the Church of England should take the principal duties of the chapel, one night in the week should be set apart for the preaching of Wesley's itinerants; and that liberty should be given to any presbyterian clergyman, who might be willing occasionally to officiate. The plan was utopian, and was soon a failure.

Of the Methodist chapel which, during the year 1763, was built in Edinburgh, we know nothing; but, in 1788, a second was erected, under the auspices of Zechariah Yewdall,5 which Valentine Ward described as “a dirty, damp, dark, dangerous hole, seating six hundred people; and which, twenty-seven years afterwards, was bought by the Edinburgh commissioners, for the sum of £1900, in order to build the bridge from Shakespeare Square to Calton Hill."

During his present stay in Scotland, Wesley also preached at Dunbar, where, eleven years before, a company of English dragoons held a prayer-meeting, at which Andrew Affleck

1 Methodist Magazine, 1782, p. 443.

3 Lady Glenorchy's Life.
5 Manuscript letter.

2 Lady Maxwell's Life. 4 Myles's "Chronological History." 6 Ward's "Strictures."

7 Rev. Valentine Ward's manuscript diary.

1763

Age 60

1763 was converted; became a member of the Methodist society, which was then formed; and, for fifty-nine years, lived the life of an earnest Christian, and then expired, saying, "Dying is hard work, but the grace of God is sufficient for me."1

Wesley returned to Newcastle on the 1st of June, preaching at Alnwick and Morpeth on his way. In a few days, he proceeded to Barnardcastle, where there was a remarkable revival of religion. A few months before, the societies throughout "the dales," or Barnardcastle circuit, had been exceeding lifeless. Samuel Meggot recommended them to observe every Friday with fasting and prayer. The result has just been stated. Twenty in Barnardcastle had found peace with God, and twenty-eight had been sanctified.

For sixteen years, Methodism had existed in this small country town, and here, as in other places, had been baptized in suffering. Many a time had Catherine Graves, one of the first members, been hunted by the rabble, and been pricked with pins for the purpose of drawing blood, and thereby depriving her of the power of sorcery; but now the Barnardcastle Methodists, comparatively speaking, were no longer a feeble folk. They built themselves a chapel; and became the head of perhaps the widest Methodist circuit then existing. They were pious, but they were poor, and contributed, upon an average, not more than a farthing per member per week; and, of course, their circuit allowances were upon a corresponding scale. The following is a verbatim et literatim extract from their stewards' book, for the quarter ending Midsummer, 1768.