Chapter 1 - Blind Guides
'Nine tenths of the men in England, said John Wesley, have no more religion than horses and perish through total contempt of it. earlier in 1736 Bishop Berkeley of tar water fame remarked: 'the age of monsters is not far off. morality and religion had collapsed 'to a degree that was never know in any Christian country. the torrent of evil Berkeley attributed to irreligion of the better sort. 'our prospect is very terrible.
to sap a creed with solemn sneer was considered not only clever but praiseworthy. addison in No. 37 of the Freeholder declared that there was 'less appearance of religion in England than any other neighboring state or kingdom.
to sap a creed with solemn sneer was considered not only clever but praiseworthy. Addison in No. 37 of the Freeholder declared that there was 'less appearance of religion in England than any other neighboring state or kingdom.
religion was considered a backwater having no vital connection with the main stream of the river. at the beginning of the century men worshipped the idol of Good Taste; at its end they fell down before the Baal of Commerce and Industry. of the higher classes of society Montesquieu wrote, 'everyone laughs if one talks of religion. crowds flocked to see that great curiosity, a religious bishop.
12 ....archbishops of the 18th century, says Rowden, were great potentates, if not princes. a coach and 6 horses, a private state barge on the Thames with its liveried crew properly belonged to such a dignitary. only 2 18th century primates were even half worthy of their sacred office. Bishop Hurd (nicknamed the Beauty of Holiness) traveled from his palace to his cathedral, a bare quarter of a mile, in his episcopal coach with his servants in full-dress liveries. when he went to Bristol Hot Wells, he never moved without a train of 12 servants, John Potter, stilted and starchy, primate at the time of Wesley's conversion, loathed the manifestation of new 'enthusiasm'. but true to the current fashion of the ruling class into which he (a draper's son) had been lifted, he left behind him 90,000 pounds which he had saved out of the church. Archbishop Moore secured well-feathered nests for his five sons. one of these for more than 50 years was recipient of an annual income from the church of not less than 12,000 pounds. Moore's own revenue averaged 11,000 pounds a year, almost 1000 times the customary stipend of a self-sacrificing missionary teacher who went as a servant of Christ to the Indians in the wilds of North America.
Frederick Corwallis married a great lady and Lambeth Palace was full of such notorious routs and feastings that the celebrated Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, lodged a protest with the King and Queen which resulted in a forcible letter to the primate. the king spoke of the 'grief and concern with which my breast was affected' at receiving the news, held 'these levities and vain dissipations as utterly inexpedient, if not unlawful, to pass in a residence for many years devoted to divine studies, religious retirement and the extensive exercise of charity and benevolence',
13 and ordered that they be suppressed immediately. Corwallis published little or nothing and died rich. Lord Campbell informs us that in spirit of Lord Thurlow's living openly with a mistress, his house was not only frequented by his brother the bishop, but by ecclesiastics of all degrees. Jonathan Trelawney, Bishop of Winchester, who died in 1721, used to excuse himself fro his excessive swearing by saying he swore as a baronet and not as a bishop.
preferment and absenteeism were the bane of the clergy. preferment was bestowed chiefly for political or family influence. the pastoral care of parishioners was confided to a curate whose services were enlisted at a stipend oftentimes far lower than that of a groom or coachman. only 3 questions were asked by worldly clerics:
where would they be most comfortable?
what were the chances of further preferment?
how could they best please the court and ministers in office?
Chapter 2 - The Fall of Man
29 it was an age of beastliness and debauchery, savagery and violence. the moral fibre of the nation was vitally decayed...
government insulted humanity by the brutal ferocity of its criminal code. there were more than 200 crimes punishable by death. prisons were indescribably filthy. those who escaped the gallows came out emaciated and diseased.
Gin was the curse of the poor and the grand destroyer of life. in 1684 only 500,000 gallons of gin were distilled. thirty years later the annual amount increased to 2,000,000...
30 purity and fidelity were sneered out of fashion. George II 'united the morals of a rake (to lead a dissoluted, dissipated life) with the tastes of a boor. Walpole as prime minister set an example of shameless profligacy. the mania for gambling ran unabated. stakes were played high at the King's palace. Lord Ilchester lost 13,000 pounds at one sitting. statesman Fox was reduced to poverty. the brutal pastimes of bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and cock-fighting constituted the delight of all classes. it was unsafe to travel or walk in London streets. roads were vile. in 1769 Arthur Young asserted that in the whole of England there were but 4 good roads; as for the rest it was a 'prostitution of Language to call them turnpikes. citizens drew up their wills before they left London.
this was the plain, naked fact as Wesley (W) saw it: a flood of general wickedness and universal misery - fraud and wrong, deceit and violence, the dire thirst of gold, lust to possess, rapine - threatened to engulf mankind. 'it strikes the eye of the most careless inaccurate observer...now it is certain the generality of men do not wear their worst side outward. rather they study to appear better than they are and to conceal what they can of their faults. what a figure then would they make were we able to touch them with Ithuriel's spear!
but, added W, that the former days were better than these, that his contemporaries now lived in the dregs of time when the world was, as it were, grown old, that everything in it was in a declining state - a common cry from generation to generation - that concept was absolutely false. the generality of men were not one jot wiser in
31 ancient times than they were in his day; the Egyptians had no deeper meaning in worshipping cats than our school-boys have in baiting them.
yet in the Doctrine of Original Sin', 1756, W bitingly surveys the past and present of mankind, with special reference to the Irish and English. of the first: 'now what knowledge have these rational animals? they know to plant and boil their potatoes, to milk their cow, and to put their clothes on and off, if they have any besides a blanket, but other knowledge they have none, unless in religion. and how much do they know of this? a little more than the Hottentots and not much.
as for the English: 'the generality of English peasants are not only grossly but stupidly, I had almost said, brutishly ignorant as to all the arts of this life. neither in their tempers or conversation, do they rise one jot above the pitch of a Turk or a Heathen. perhaps, it will be said, 'whatever the clowns in the midland counties are, the people near the sea coasts are more civilized. yes, great numbers of them are, in and near all our ports, many thousands there are civilized by smuggling. these are, therefore, general robbers. they rob you and me and everyone of their countrymen, seeing had the king his due customs, a great part of our taxes might be spared. a smuggler then...is a thief of the first order, a highwayman or pickpocket of the worst sort.
Chapter 3 - The Message of Equality
John W taught liberty, equality, fraternity long before the French Revolution.
Methodism was a religion of the common people, a movement of and by the poor - 'not many mighty, not many noble. Methodism was republican in government. opportunities for lay men to exercise their gifts, to assume responsibilities and to occupy official positions attracted the working classes. the fellowship was voluntary. it attracted men because it gave them something to do, made them feel they had a share in the success of the movement. working men and women were made into class leaders, local preachers, exhorters, prayer leaders, trustees, and stewards. they could exercise their votes in the Leaders' Meeting, the society Meeting, perhaps in the Trustees' Meeting, the Preachers' Meeting and the Quarterly Meeting. all this opportunity and trust were offered to the poorest of the poor who were made most welcome. hence it happened that years before he people were offered the political vote they were offered the religious franchise.
the leaders were not imposed from above. Methodism made its leaders. many had but the slightest education. class leaders rose from the rank and file and represented every conceivable occupation. there was no financial qualification. the chief qualifications were common sense, a flair for initiative and a positive religious experience. by the end of the century there were at least 8,000 of these leaders of small groups. founders might include at
36 random a carpenter, a schoolmaster, a shepherd, a retired soldier, an upholsterer, a tailor, a taverner, a piece maker, a handloom weaver, a cordwainer, a cooper, a grocer, a breadbaker, and a brazier. even women could and did attain to positions of leadership. all over the country societies were formed on the initiative of women who needed no other authority than their won impulse and determination. a servant girl, an itinerant carder and spinner or a housewife was no less acceptable than a woman of social position and influence. this was a bold innovation and an example of leveling sentiment even in an age of blue-stockings. in these and other ways the gifts and enthusiasm of a large number of earnest people were enlisted in W's cause.
the system of class meetings was the very life of Methodism. these consisted of small groups of christians who met regularly together for mutual help and fellowship. their meeting place was sometimes a private house or room in the local chapel. membership of the class always carried with it membership of the Methodist Society. the weekly meeting was not only a religious meeting but also a social or family gathering. there was usually a free and easy atmosphere about the place. all who attended were encouraged to assist one another. those who could not subscribe a penny a week were helped by those who could.
help us to help each other, Lord
each other's cross to bear,
let each his friendly aid afford
and fell his brother's care.
each person who attended was expected to take some part in the devotions all members were expected to use, not hide their talents, their faith to be expressed in works.
far from being an anodyne (def -something that reliefs distress, pain) the urgent and compelling message of w was a summons to put sloth aside and
37 accept duties and responsibilities and play a full part in the arena. to carry out W's injunction meant that every Methodist became in some degree a teacher, a judge, and a preacher, something new to the illiterate masses of the 18th century. whatever they were in the mine or mill, here in the chapel they were men - with worth and dignity in the eyes of God and their brethren - free and equal. this confirmation of human values, the recognition of the common man, was one of the most far reaching and potently significant elements in W's work. Gray's short and simple annals of the poor were told in reverse; hidden resources were tapped and utilized. in a sense the century of the forgotten man had begun; in a sense, too, W's was the first neurological clinic.
W taught the laboring poor that they too were precious in the sight of God and that they had a soul to save and maintain equally with the richest in the land. for the crushed and despised to be told over and over again that God loved them, that they could be saved, sounded strange in their ears and filled them with astonishment. the effect on mind and heart, the revolution in outlook on life and society was phenomenal. many changed themselves and tried to change and improve their environment.
in Methodist societies members learned 'earnestness, sobriety, industry and regularity of conduct', ready to take their places in the industrial world. these were serviceable social fruits indeed. in the chapel life, too, working men first learned to speak and organize, to persuade and trust their fellows. 'it was in the Little Bethel that many of the working class leaders were trained'. from the very beginning of the Trade Union Movement, among all sections of the wage earners, says Sidney Webb, 'it is men who are Methodists whom we find taking the lead and filling the posts of influence. from their ranks have come an astonishingly large proportion of the Trade Union leaders.
43 Chapter 4 - The Alphabet of the Good Life
'they are poor only because they are idle, said W, is 'wickedly, devilishly false'. he summed it up on one occasion when distress was acute in the community: 'Let everyone avoid luxuries; let everyone work; provide employment for all.
the most persistent charge leveled against the laboring poor was their improvidence and untrustworthiness, their carelessness of their own welfare, their mean, sordid, indecent spirit. W addressed himself more effectively to the problem than any other force in the 18th century. 'to set the state of perfection too high, said w, is the surest way to drive it out of the world. he therefore introduced to the poor the alphabet of the good life, the bare introductory phrases - industry, cleanliness, diligence, frugality, self-reliance, honesty - the tangible ideals which the masses could understand and lay hold of. often Methodist preachers were welcomed for the effect they had upon the laborers.
'my part, W remarked, is to improve the present moment. to the miners he came as a civilizing influence. the Methodist chapel gave the collier a homely and joyous religion. it also provided a happy fellowship and means of education. 'the typical miner, says Webb, was drunken, dissolute and brutalized, tyrannized over by his employers and their underlings. the majority had never received any education whatever. to these people w and his preachers brought the Bible and
44 Methodist Hymn Book. there came to them a desire for learning and improvement which had to be gratified. they sent their children to Sunday school, and not content with that, often accompanied them. W drove into the minds of a naturally improvident race that extravagance was in itself a sin. no longer were wages squandered in alehouses and cockpits, or sums wasted in pawning and borrowing. drunkenness disappeared. no small part of the riotous opposition to W and his societies was instigated by alehouse keepers who complained of loss of their customers. their antagonism was justified.
..industriousness was not merely a duty; it was woven into the doctrine of moral transformation. the Methodist brought to his work an habitual seriousness of purpose . he worked and lived austerely and found satisfaction in it. he worked in a mood of devotion. the sheer association of religious zeal and daily work made it natural that the economic ideal should acquire meaning and power. Methodist workmen felt no self-consciousness in undertaking to persuade even their masters to become Methodists just as Methodist masters often led their employees to enter the societies not by compulsion of prestige but by sincere personal zeal. this union of religious enthusiasm, Puritan austerity and sanctification of work sank deeply into the character of the faithful member. he had a more hopeful and more purposeful hold upon life. the converts of W could look forward to a new heaven and new earth.
Chapter 6 - Regimen
68 what is important for us, says Woodrow Wilson, is the method and cause of John W's success, his method was as simple as the object he had in view. he wanted to get men and he went directly to them, not so much like a priest as like a fellow man standing in a like need with themselves.
...His accomplishments were due to methodical habits. he made schedules weeks in advance and nothing could deter him from fulfilling his engagement. the ice cut like a sword, the rain ran in the main street with a stream capable of turning a mill, his clothes were wet through and through most of the day, he had a pain in the left side and in his shoulder, his windpipe seemed nearly closed, he was violently sick or feverish, preaching as if his feet were in cold water, but he never disappointed. 'Press on, break through', he urged one of his preachers.
'let not a little hindrance or inconvenience put you our of your way.
70 his saddlebags were filed with books, which he read as he rode along in good weather. History, poetry and philosophy he commonly read on horseback, having other employment at other times. (once riding to Newcastle he finished the tenth book of the Iliad.) only a few times was he thrown head over heels. in riding vast distances he scarcely ever remembered a horse (except 2) to fall or stumble while he rode with a slack rein. but if over the roughest paths and fells, he tumbled, treachle and brown paper provided a sovereign cure for bruises.
it must have been a remarkable sight - a small man in scrupulously neat clerical dress, jogging somewhat awkwardly along the road, the reins hanging loosely on his horse's neck, a book in one hand and a busy pencil in the other, marking through a word her, a phrase there, a sentence or paragraph yonder, now and then writing in the margin or changing the punctuation to suit the requirements of the abbreviated sentences. often on the back of his best ridden horse he prepared other men's work for republication. when he was 63 friends gave him a carriage and pair. he nailed up one side of the coach and built in shelves which were filled with books and a board which could be let down to serve as a desk.
71 his chaise became a study, an office, a book shop, a library, and also a private chapel.
in an era when the chief thoroughfares of England were infested with highwaymen, he never once was robbed on the road. if inhospitably treated at an inn, as he was at first in Cornwall, he could feed on blackberries. if there were no bed to lie on, well, he would lie on the boards. once after about a fortnight of such sleeping , he turned round in the night to his companion and, clapping him on the side , said, 'Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer, for the skin is off but one side yet.
'In my present journey, he remarks I leap as broke from chains. I am content with whatever entertainment I meet with and my companions are always in a good humor because they are with me. this must be the spirit of all who take journeys with me. if a dinner ill dressed, or hard bed, a poor room, a shower of rain, or a dusty road will put them out of humor, it lays a burthen upon me greater than all the rest put together. by the grace of God I never fret. I repine at nothing. I am discontented with nothing. and to hear persons at my ear fretting and murmuring at everything is like tearing the flesh off my bones. I see God sitting upon His throne and ruling all things well.
W's industry was almost without parallel. the mere outlines of his work are sufficient to make one gasp with astonishment. during his itinerant ministry, he traveled (mostly on horseback) over a quarter of a million miles (a distance equal to 9 times round the world), preached no less than 52,400 times between 1738, when he returned from Georgia and 1791, when he preached his last sermon 8 days before he died. in addition he organized and superintended hundreds of societies in every part of the kingdom, wrote 233 books and pamphlets and helped in the writing and editing of 200 more
72 kept a journal and private shorthand diary, carried on a huge correspondence, organized various forms of relief for the poor and unemployed and had always time to talk or pray with anyone who needed him. 'looking at his traveling the marvel is how he found time to write, and looking at his books, the marvel is how he found time to preach. he was always moving and yet in the midst of ceaseless toils, he betrayed no more bustle than a planet in its course. his mission was too great to allow time for rifles. rising with the lark, traveling with the sun, he always acted in harmony with his won well-known utterances. 'the world is my parish! he reappears in nearly half a hundred towns for 30 times and more, while he records 40 visits each to Canterbury, Bolton, Chester, Salisbury, Sheffield, between 50 and 70 to Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle-on- the =Tyne, over 100 to Kingswood, 175 to Bristol, and 200 recorded visits o London. he sent forth preachers to proclaim the love of religion to every inhabitant throughout the land while he himself regularly ranged the 3 kingdoms and wales 'stirring the stagnant current of human life'. his labors in Ireland were almost incredible. all over the isle he went preaching every day and often twice or thrice a day, not only in Methodist meeting houses, but in churches, Presbyterian chapels, in factories, in bowling greens, in assembly rooms, in court houses, in barns, in sloping meadows, in shady orchards, in groves and avenues, in linen halls, in churchyards and streets - everywhere he had a chance. we know with certainty that minute as are the details of his journals he by no means mentions every sermon that he delivered and every society that he visited.
the story of a single typical day is he story of the whole 50 years. he rose at 4 o'clock, read his devotional books until 5, preached in the open air to the colliers or other workers who had to go to their tasks at
73 half past 6. after breakfast at 7 he mounted his horse and drew rein for a few minutes from time to time to read a page in some book he was analyzing. after a 20 or 30 mile ride, he preached in the public square or some churchyard at noon. he dismissed his hearers at one o'clock that they might return to work, then rode rapidly, often 20 miles, to his next appointment where he preached at 5. after supper, when evening twilight fell, he preached again or held a service that lasted until 9 or 10 o'clock.
always and everywhere he was ready to turn passing incidents to practical account. 'Pray, sir, let us go, said one of is friends while 2 women near Billingsgate market were quarreling most furiously and using language far more forceful than pious. 'pray, sir, let us go. I cannot sand it'. 'stay, Sammy, replied Wesley, as he looked at the viragos who were evidently inspired, though not from heaven. 'stay, Sammy, stay and learn how to preach.
although it was W's constant rule that no preacher preach more than twice a day unless on Sunday or an extraordinary occasion - to do oftener than this was 'a degree of self murder' - he himself frequently delivered 3 or 4 sermons in a day. a letter to James Hutton on his activities, june 23, 1739, reads: 'at 4 I preached to about 2,000 at the Bowling Green on 'do all to the glory of God', at seven in the morning to 4 or 5,000 and at 10 to about 3.000 at Ha,ham. as he was riding to rose Green, his horse pitched is head and rolled over and over. W received a little bruise on the side, which made him lame to 2 or 3 days.
the practice of preaching at 5 or earlier was begun in order not to interfere with the working hours of his hearers. the miners of Newcastle came to hear him at night and slept on the benches of he old meeting house so that they might hear him again at 5 in the morning
74 before going to the pithead. W considered preaching at 5 the healthiest exercise in the world. these early morning services, he said, were 'the glory of the Methodists'. a glory that made them 'a peculiar people'. no other church or community in England had a service like this. if Methodists failed to attend, they would lose their zeal and become a fallen people.
'It is no exaggeration to say, remarked one biographer, that w preached more sermons, rode more miles, worked more hours, printed more books and influenced more lives that any Englishman of his age or perhaps of any age. and he performance did not even tire him! in 1786 he writes, 'I have entered upon the 83rd year of my age. I am a wonder to myself. I am never tired either with preaching, writing or traveling.
perhaps the secret of W's intense accomplishment lies in this: 'do all tings with a single eye as I have done from the beginning. On december 6, 1726, W hoisted his flag -'Leisure and I have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long as I live if my health is so long indulged me. the flag never drooped ill death overtook him in 1791 even when he badly sprained his ankle on the ice in the middle of London Bridge he was never idle. he spent the week in prayer, in reading, in conversation and in writing Lessons for Children and compiling a Hebrew grammar.
Dr. Johnson complained about W's activity. 'John w's conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. he is always obliged to go at a certain hour. this is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have out his talk as I do. w explained he manner of his life o Miss march, Dec. 10,1777: 'though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry because I never
75 undertake any more work than I can go through with perfect calmness of spirit. it is true I travel 4 or 5000 mile in a year. but I generally travel alone in my carriage and consequently am as retired 10 hours in a day as if I was in a wilderness. on other days i never spend less that 3 hours (frequently 10 or 12) in the day alone. so there are few persons in the kingdom who spend so many hours secluded from all company.
inflexible temperance was linked to unexampled economy o time. at 73 W wrote this paean of himself: 'I am 73 years old and far abler to preach than I was at 3 and 20. what natural means has god used to produce so wonderful an effect.
1. continual exercise and change off air by travelling about 4.000 miles in a year.
2. constant rising at 4.
3. the ability, if ever I want, to sleep immediately.
4. the never losing a night's sleep in my life.
5. 2 violent fevers and 2 deep consumptions. (def - tuberculosis of the lungs)
these it is true, were rough medicines, but they were of admirable service, causing my flesh to come again as the flesh of a little child. may I add lastly, evenness of temper? I feel and grieve, but by the grace of God I fret at nothing.
to sally W, to readers and listeners, he marked he pitfalls of excessive indulgence in sleep. 'all are intemperate in sleep who sleep more than nature requires, and how much it does require is easily known. there is no universal rule, none that will suit all constitutions...
-
'healthy men in general need a little above 6 hours' sleep, healthy women a little above 7 in 4 and 20. I myself want 6 hours and a half, and I cannot well subsist with less.
if any one desire to know exactly what quantity of sleep his own constitution requires, he may very easily make the experiment which I made about 60 years ago. I then waked every night about 12 or 1 and lay awake for some time. I readily concluded that this arose
76 from my lying longer in bed than nature require. to be satisfied I procured an alarum, which waked me the next morning at 7, (near an hour earlier than I rose the day before), yet I lay awake again at night. the second morning i rose at 6, but notwithstanding this I lay awake the second night. the third morning I rose at 5, but nevertheless i lay awake the third night. the fourth morning i rose at four (as by the grace of God I have done ever since) and I lay awake no more. and I do not now lie awake (taking the year round) a quarter of an hour together in a month.
but what were the ill consequences of lying longer in bed - suppose 9 hours in 4 and 20?
it hurts the body...it as it were soddens and parboils the flesh and sows he seeds of numerous diseases, of all nervous diseases in particular...
it hurts the mind, it weakens the understanding. it blunts the imagination...
take exactly so much sleep as nature requires. if you need between 7 and 8 hours, then in the name of God, begin! this very night lie down at 10 o'clock and rise between 5 and 6 whether you sleep or no'.
no avenue off escape is provided, no grace o human weakness. 'In spite of the most dear and agreeable companions, in spite of heir most earnest solicitations, in spite of entreaties, railleries or reproaches, vigorously keep your hour. rise up precisely at your time and retire without ceremony. keep your hour, notwithstanding the most pressing business; lay all things by till the morning. be it ever so great a cross, ever so great self-denial, keep your hour, or all is over.
I advise you, Be steady. Keep your hour of rising without intermission. Do not rise 2 mornings and lie in bed he third, but what you do once, do always. 'but my head aches. do not regard that. it will soon be over. but I am uncommonly drowsy; by eyes are quite heavy. then you must not parley; otherwise it is a lost case, but start up
77 at once. and if your drowsiness does not go off, lie down for a while, an hour or 2 after. but let nothing make a breach upon this rule, rise and dress yourself at your hour.
W was one of the most abstemious men or the 18th century. he says in one pace that for 4 years he lived entirely on potatoes. Horace Walpole half way through the century describes a court beauty as having 2 acres of cheek spread with crimson, an ocean of neck that overflowed and was not distinguishable from the lower part of the body. Thackeray observes, 'swift was fat, Addison was fat, Gay and Thomson were preposterously fat; all the fuddling and lunch drinking, that club and coffee house boozing, shortened the lives and enlarged the waistcoats of the man of that age. Fox and Walpole and the Royal Georges were all massively corpulent. Johnson was huge. Garrick declares that most actors ate and drank themselves into unseemly unshapes.
W's Thoughts on Nervous disorders aimed at providing a remedy for lowness of spirit and a sound specific (note...remedy) for a vigorous, temperate and healthy life.
'First. sacredly abstain from all spiritous liquors. to others they may sometimes be of use, but to nervous persons they are deadly poison.
secondly. if you drink any, drink but little tea and none at all without eating or without sugar and cream. 'But you like it without. no mater; prefer health before taste.
Thirdly. every day of your life take at least an hour's exercise, between breakfast and dinner. if you will, take another hour before supper, or before you sleep. if you can, take it in the open air; otherwise in the house. if you cannot ride or walk abroad, use, within, a dumbbell or a wooden horse.
Fourthly. take no more food than nature requires. ...it is not generally the quality but the quantity o what we eat which hurts us. dine upon one thing - except pudding
78 or pie. eat no flesh at supper, but something light and easy of digestion.
Fifthly. sleep early and rise early, unless you are are ill, never lie in bed much above 7 hours. then you will never lie awake. your flesh will be firm and your spirits lively.
Sixthly. above all,
'Give not your passions way,
God gave them to thee under lock and key.
beware of anger, beware o worldly sorrow, beware of the ear that hath torment, beware o foolish and hurtful desires, beware of inordinate (def - immoderate) affection.
do you know why that cow looks over that wall? W asked a friend. the man had been speaking about his troubles and saying that he knew not what he should do. 'Do you know why that cow looks over that wall? No, replied his friend. I will tell you then, ..she looks over the wall because she cannot look through it. and that is what you must do with your troubles - look over them.
Be earnest! Be Earnest! (def - serious in intention, purpose, effort) was the main lesson of W's life. wisely said he ancients, 'the soul and body make a man; the spirit and discipline make a christian. W's indomitable devotion to duty was magnificent. here was no ordinary man, but a god-like man, never flinching, never disheartened, always buoyed up by faith, always gentle and kind. 'DUTY IS ALL I CONSIDER.' Trouble and Reproach I value not, he wrote. I must follow my own conscience. to Mrs. Baron he sent words of courage: 'continue to be useful in your generation. as you have time to do good unto all men, comfort the afflicted, support the weak, exhort the believers to go on to perfection. never be weary of well doing. he always found time to
79 visit the sick and the poor, and I must do i. if I believe the Bible...where there is time and opportunity for it, who can doubt but this is matter of absolute duty? he took as his motto Bishop Stratford's prayer, 'Lord, let me not live to be useless. his concern for man's welfare was to bring no towering rank, no monetary reward. an instance of Francis Asbury's greatness caused no end of annoyance. 'how can you, he wrote to A in America, how dare you suffer yourself to be called Bishop? I shudder, I start at the very thought! Men may call me a knave or a fool, a rascal, a scoundrel and I am content, but they shall never by my consent call me Bishop.
but W's devotion to duty neither scarred his nature and countenance nor desiccated (def - dry up) his blood. if ever man dwelt in constant sunshine, it was W. he was always the christian gentleman - placid, benevolent, and full of anecdote. though never trifling, he was always cheerful, sometimes saying, 'I dare not fret than curse or swear. his sprightliness among his friends never left him. in the midst of gigantic toils, he was blithe and happy. 'I am convinced true religion or holiness cannot be without cheerfulness...and that true religion has nothing sour austere, unsociable in it. are you fro having as much cheerfulness as you can? so am I . do you endeavor to keep alive your taste for all the truly innocent pleasures o life? so do I likewise. do you refuse no pleasure but what is a hindrance to some greater good or has a tendency to some evil? it is my very rule.
Wesleyans followed that rule. they were a happy people, but their happiness was seasoned with a tight-lipped determination. 'I do not remember to have felt lowness of spirits from one quarter of an hour since I was born. Alexander Knox, who knew W, said, 'He was, in truth, the most perfect specimen of oral happiness that I ever saw. and his biographer, the Rev. Luke Tyerman, concludes
80 on the same note, 'happy, happy old man.
that -the cheerfulness of religion - was the substance of his reproof to William Law: 'Let me beg you to consider whether your extreme roughness and morose and sour behavior can possibly be the fruit of a living faith in Christ. to his mother he wrote: 'I can't think that when God sent us into the world He had irreversibly decreed that we should be perpetually miserable in it... what are become of all the innocent comforts and pleasures of life if it is the intent of our Creator that we should never taste them? if our taking up the cross implies our bidding adieu to all joy and satisfaction, how is it reconcilable with what Solomon so expressly affirms of religion - that her was are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace?
whenever Whitefield passed, he left memories of overwhelming passion and eloquence. whenever W passes, he left more enduring memorials in the shape of schools, mission rooms, meeting places and unions fro prayer, for charity and for self help. 'no preacher ought to stay either at Portsmouth or Sarum or any other place a whole week together, said W. 'that is not the Methodist plan at all. channels of endeavour, areas of fervor were marked out at the first visit; at each return these were bolstered until they became bulwarks.
W's passion for order led him to become the great organizer. the societies were almost semi-military; the whole Methodist organization was benevolently autocratic. but no great religious leader was less of a doctrinaire, less of a dictator. no founder of a great religious movement was more open to conviction: 'I have no more right to object to a man for holding a different opinion from mine than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my own hair, but if he takes his wig off
81 and shakes the powder in my eyes, I shall consider it my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible. w was a great general who had the interest of his disciples at heart and hey admired and respected him.
he was no milksop (def -a weak, ineffectual person) those who had business dealings with him soon found out what sort of man they had to do with. 'Sir, he wrote to a landowner at Newcastle, 'I am surprised. you give it under your hand that you will put me in possession of a piece of ground, specified in an article between us, in 15 days time. three months are passed, and that article is not fulfilled. and now you say you can't conceive what I mean by troubling you. I mean to have that article fulfilled. I think my meaning is very plain. I am, sir, your humble servant. he got the piece of ground - for an orphan house.
W strove to visit all his societies at least once a year and his visits generally involved a review of local affairs. he expelled or accepted members, appointed local preachers and confirmed or rejected he appointments o those who ad begun to preach without his express sanction. among all who were his fellow workers, he was he head.
he stamped his personality on every part of he machine he made. at the annual conference of itinerant preachers in 1766, when someone complained of his power, he replied: 'I did not seek any part of this power; it came upon me unawares. bu when it was come, not daring to bury that talent, I used it to the best of my judgment; yet I was never fond of it. I always did and do now bear it as my burden, the burden which god lays upon me and therefore I dare not yet lay it down. but if you can tell me any one or say 5 men to whom I may transfer this burden, who can and will do just what I do now, I will heartily thank both them and you...
'it is nonsense to call my using this power, 'shackling free-born Englishmen'. none needs to submit to it, unless he will, so there is no shackling in the case. every preacher.
82 and every member may leave me when he pleases. but while he chooses to stay, it is on the same terms that he joined me at first. 'but this is arbitrary power; this is no less than making yourself a Pope.
'if by arbitrary power you mean a power which I exercise singly, without any colleagues therein, this is certainly true, but I see no hurt in it. arbitrary in this sense is a verry
84 W was wrong at times, but he was always generous and never bitter. not power alone made him dominant. it was something else - the devotion he inspired in his followers. they adored him, called him Rabbi, because the quality in him they would all have shared, if they could, was his infinite charity. he never spared himself. all the time he gave, gave everywhere, of the spirit that was in him and it was abundant. because of this he came to be the best loved man in all England and Ireland.
W was neat and tidy, his linen spotless and his shoes regularly shined, however wet the weather or muddy the road. in an age of powdered and monstrous wigs he was content to wear his natural hair. immaculateness and simple comeliness were the outstanding marks of his person. although small in stature (5 ft., 4 in.) he was finely proportioned, muscular and strong. He wore a narrow plaited stock, a coat with small upright collar, no buckles at the knee, no silk or velvet in any part of his apparel and the ordinary shovel hat of a clergyman. in youth his hair was black; in old age it was as white as snow.
the face of W mellowed with the years, shining with the beauty of holiness - serene, resolute, gracious, beatific - white silken, wavy locks; aquiline (def - shaped like an eagle's beak; hooked) nose; clear, ruddy complexion; penetrating, kindly eyes; and radiant cheerfulness. but Cromwellian firmness was mingled with sweetness.
towards the close of his career W began every New Year by distributing coal and bread ad clothing among the poor of the society. for 5 days in Jan. 1785, when he was 82 years old, he walked the streets of London begging 200 pounds while his 'feet were steeped in
85 snow nearly from morning till evening'. he got the money and a few days' illness.
persecution had ceased. his po0pularity was greater than ever. everywhere he was greeted with welcoming crowds. on sun., Aug. 23, 1789, this 'decayed' old man of 86 preached in the amphitheatre at Redruth, Cornwall, to an audience estimated at 25,000, but he doubted whether all could hear. at Falmouth the streets were line by a crowd from one end of the town to the other, 'out of stark love and kindness, gaping and staring as if the king were going by.
in the last year of his life what he had said in 1785 was still more clearly demonstrated: 'I am become, I know not how, an honorable man.
Chapter 7 - Style and Oratory
W could not hold a candle to whitefield as an orator, but his sentences seemed to clutch at men's hearts. when a man heard Wh, he said, 'what an actor! what an actor! i think he is sincere', but when he heard W he felt that he was alone with him and W's grave, penetrating words were addressed to him personally...
his aim was to address the bulk of mankind, those who cared nothing for the art of speaking, but who were nevertheless shrewd
87 judges of what was necessary for their happiness. he wished to utter plain truth for plain people. therefore he abstained from all refined phi9losophical speculations, from all intricate reasonings, and as far as possible, from even the show of learning. he labored to avoid all words which were not easily understood or not used in common conversation.
...W's manner was calm, but it was the calm of restrained emotion. his power lay in the reasonableness and clarity, the quiet sincerity of all he said. there was no escape from relentless logic as he drove home each point, using the simplest and most homely metaphors and similes.
88 he generally preached on very practical matters and frequently on simple morality and ethics - 13 sermons on application of the Sermon on the Mount, many on such subjects as self denial, the use of money, evil speaking, a caution against bigotry, on dress, on the danger of riches, on the education of children, on obedience to parents, on worldly folly, on the reformation of manners.
people hung upon his words, for he was speaking of things intensely real to him as to them - the tone of absolute conviction held them. he hit upon the secret that 'a controlled and reasoning fanaticism is one of the most powerful means of stirring the feelings of man. in preaching he reasoned: 'I believe and reason too, for I find no inconsistency between them. he prized his dialectical ability highly. 'I would as soon gut out my eyes to secure my faith as lay aside my reason.
he used his voice with skill. 'speak with all your heart. he warned his preachers, but with a moderate voice. be a follower of me. I often speak loud, often vehemently, but I never scream. I never strain myself.
He called his preachings love feasts. but he was never content merely to preach. preaching was a preliminary to societies and classes. he would not speak anywhere that he could not strike the second blow. he was not creating a new religious sect, he insisted, but an order, a fellowship.
Dr. Johnson said of Methodist preaching in reply to Boswell: 'Sir, it is owing to their expressing themselves in a plain and familiar manner which is the only way to do good to the common people and which clergy men of genius and learning ought to do from a principle of duty, when it is suited to their congregations, a practice for which they will be praised by men of sense.
89 Dinah Morris in Adam Bede describes an open air meeting she witnessed. 'it was on just a sort of evening as this, when I was a little girl and my aunt took me to hear a good man preach out of doors, just as we are here. I remember his face well; he was a very old man, and had very long white hair; hes voice was very soft and beautiful, not like any voice I had every heard before. I was a little girl and scarcely knew anything and this old man seemed to me such a different sort of man from anybody I had ever seen before that I thought that he had perhaps come down from the sky to preach to us and I said, 'aunt, will he go back into the sky tonight like the picture in the Bible?
...Whitefield was all thunder, emotion and tears; W was logical and analytical. yet the effect produced by w was more violent and lasting - effects that to him were highly gratifying, but extremely repugnant to many of his friends. the manifestations were all of an hysterical nature - shrieks, groans, trances and convulsions. the most general sound was a loud breathing like that of people half strangled and gasping for life. great numbers wept without any voice, others fell down as dead; some sank in silence, some with extreme noise and violent agitation. prayer and song usually restored them to a happier frame of mind.
the first instance of this manifestation in W's preaching occurred on Apr. 17, 1739, in Bristol. W was expounding the fourth chapter of acts concerning the healing of a lame man by John and Peter. at the conclusion of the sermon he called upon god 'to confirm his word'. that was the cue to a woman standing close to
90 him, who raised an outcry as if in the agonies of death. the congregation continued to pray until she recovered and sang a Methodist hymn. two others followed in the same manner; they too ended with praise to God their Saviour. at Bristol, on My 1, W's voice could hardly be heard above the groans and cries of sinners calling for salvation.
some said the bad air of crowded rooms helped to bring on fits, but it was noted that the converts began screaming and dropping in the open air. one named Thomas Maxfield roared and beat himself against the ground so that 6 men could hardly hold him. on this day there were 7 cases in the morning out of doors and 29 in the evening in a room, at Bezore a young man 'cut to the heart' cried aloud, then another and another, 'till my voice was quite lost. again at Everton there were only silent tears at first on every side, but it was not long before several were unable to refrain from weeping aloud; then a stout young man dropped down and roared. at Stroud, a young gentleman interrupted W's preaching by crying out, 'I am damned, and falling to the ground. a second repeated this action quickly after. 'we joined in prayer but had not time (it growing late) to wrestle with God for their full deliverance.
at Newgate he was led to pray that god would bear witness to His word. 'Immediately one and another and another sunk to the earth; they dropped on every side as thunderstruck. one of them cried aloud. while he was preaching at Newgate a woman broke out into strong cries and tears. great drops of sweat ran down her face and all her bones shook, 'but her body and soul were healed in a moment. at Baldwin Street his voice could scarcely be heard amidst the groanings of some and the cries of others 'a Quaker who stood by was very angry, and was biting his lips and knitting his brows, when he dropped down as thunderstruck. the agony he was in was even terrible to behold. we besought God not to lay folly
91 to his charge and he soon lifted up his heart and cried aloud, 'Now I know thou art a prophet of the Lord.
W encouraged these hysterical outbursts. the aim of a revivalist is to create an atmosphere of contagious emotion in which worldly reason, the counsels of selfish prudence and material welfare are inhibited. the mental condition desired is akin to that induced by Coleridge - 'that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith. make the individual want to believe with all his heart; 'make him feel that he ought to believe and also that others round him are believing and he will believe.
but as the Methodist cause progressed, hysterical manifestations became less and less frequent.
W's intimate knowledge of his preachers enabled him to use their various gifts to the utmost advantage. he moved amongst them like a father. he stimulated their studies, guided their reading, took an interest in their families, and did everything in his power to appoint them to paces where they could do their best services.
his letters to them show how far he was typical of gentlemen of his time, how insistent he was on order, restraint, and decorum. how pointed and personal his remarks could be is shown in a letter to an Irish preacher, giving a list of 'little things to remember'.
1. 'be active, be diligent; avoid all laziness, sloth, indolence. fly from every degree, every appearance of it; else you will never be more than half a christian.
2. be cleanly. in this let the Methodists take pattern by the Quakers. avoid all nastiness, dirt, slovenliness, both in your person, clothes, house and all about you. do not stink above ground. this is a bad fruit of laziness; use all diligence to be clean, as one says,
92 let thy mind's sweetness have its operation
upon thy person, clothes, and habitation.
3. whatever clothes you have, let them be whole; no rents, no tatters, no rags. these are a scandal to either man or woman, being another fruit of vile laziness. mend your clothes or I shall never expect you to mend your lives. let none ever see a ragged Methodist.
4. clean yourselves of lice. these are a proof both of uncleanness and laziness; take pains in this, do not cut off your hair, but clean it and keep it clean.
5. cure yourself and your family of the itch; a spoonful of brimstone will cure you. to let this run from year to year proves both sloth and uncleanness. away with it at once...
6. use no tobacco unless prescribed by a physician. it is an uncleanly and unwholesome self indulgence...
7. use no snuff unless prescribed by a physician. I suppose no other nation in europe is in such vile bondage to this silly, nasty, dirty custom as the irish are. but let christians be in this bondage no longer. ASSERT YOUR LIBERTY AND THAT ALL AT ONCE.
8. touch no dram (def - 1/8th of an ounce; a small drink of liquor). it is liquid fire. it is a sure though slow poison. it saps the very springs of life.
in Minutes of Several Conversations further advice is given to W's followers in the form of question and answer. in answer to question 26: what are the rules of a helper? he replies: do not affect the gentleman. you have no more to do with this character than with that of a dancing master. a preacher of the gospel is the servant of all. be ashamed of nothing by sin: not of fetching wood (if time permit) or drawing water, not of cleaning your own shoes or your neighbor's..
'Be mild! Be serious! W urged elsewhere. 'Remember soft and fair goes far.
W's 'small advices' on preaching include:
93 1. be sure never to disappoint a congregation unless in case of life or death.
2. begin and end precisely at the time appointed...
4. always suit your subject to your audience.
5. choose the plainest texts you can.
6. take care not to ramble, but keep to your text, and make out what you take in hand.
7. be sparing in allegorizing or spiritualizing. do not suffer the people to sing too low.
8. take care of anything awkward or affected either in your gesture, phrase or pronunciation.
9. sing no hymns of your own composing...
13. exhort everyone be in the congregation to sing, not one in ten only...
20. beware of clownishness either in speech or dress. wear no slouched hat.
21. be merciful to your beast. not only ride moderately but see with your own eyes that your horse be rubbed, fed and bedded.
'after preaching take a little lemonade, mild ale or candied orange peel.
insistent was W's demand, 'Be temperate! Be temperate! in speaking
'else Satan will befool you and on pretense of being more useful, quite disable you from being useful at all...if you would not murder yourself, take particular care never to preach too loud or too long. always conclude the service within the hour. then preaching will not hurt you.
again he warned: they must speak as earnestly as they could, but they must not scream. it was disgusting to the hearers; it gave them pain not pleasure. 'scream no more at the peril of your soul...it was said of our Lord, 'he shall not cry'; the word properly means, 'He shall not SCREAM.
the chief faults of speaking, after speaking too loud, was speaking in a thick, cluttering manner, speaking too fast, too slow or speaking with an irregular, uneven voice.
94 'but the greatest and most common fault of all is the speaking with a tone. some have a womanish, squeaking tone, some a singing or canting (def of cant - insincere, esp. conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness or piety)one; some a high, swelling theatrical tone, laying too much emphasis on every sentence; some have an awful solemn tone, others an odd, whimsical, whining one, not to be expressed in words.
'to avoid all kinds of unnatural tones, the only rule is this - Endeavor to speak in public just as you do in common conversation. attend to your subject and deliver it in the same manner as if you were talking of it to a friend....
'If you would be heard with pleasure, first study to render your voice as soft and sweet as possible and the more if it be naturally harsh, hoarse, or obstreperous, which may be cured by constant exercise.
secondly, labor to avoid the odious custom of coughing and spitting while you are speaking.
'above all, take care, thirdly, to vary your voice according to the matter on which you speak. nothing more grates the ear than a voice still in the same key.
the best way to learn how to vary the voice is to observe common discourse. take notice how you speak yourself in ordinary conversation and how others speak on various occasions.
never clap you hand nor thump the pulpit...your hands are not to be in perpetual motion; this the ancients called the babbling of hands.
ease was the first, second and third points in preaching. it was also the first, second and third points in style. stiffness, apparent exactness, artificiality of style were the main defects to be avoided next to solecism (def - ungrammatical usage) and impropriety....O tread natural, tread easy, only not careless. do not blunder or shamble into impropriety. ..
95...but speaking and writing were to proceed from a bursting granary of knowledge. W enjoined his preachers the necessity of spending at least 5 hours in 24 in reading the most useful books. he warned them too that one could no more be a deep preacher than a thorough christian without extensive reading. 50 volumes of his famous Christian Library were edited specifically for the general education of his preachers, helpers and followers.
..every preacher was made a distributor and seller of books. 'you should take particular care that your circuit be never without an assortment of all the valuable books, especially the Appeals, the Sermons, Kempis and the Primitive Physic which no family should be without. it was true that most of the Methodists were poor, but what then? 'nine in ten of them would be no poorer if they were to lay out an whole penny in buying a book every other week in the year. by this means the work of God is both widened and deepened in every place. 'O why is not this regarded? W asks elsewhere.
the preachers must diligently ride their circuits. 'it is a shame, he writes, for any Methodist preacher to confine himself to one place. we are debtors to all the world. we are called to warn everyone, to exhort everyone, if by any means we may save some. again: to preach once in a place and no more seldom did any good. 'it only alarms the devil and his children and makes them more
96 upon their guard against a first assault. the indolence of one preacher who lingered elicited this curt response: to Francis Wolfe" 'frankly, are you out of your wits? why are you not at Bristol? we are traveling preachers, he remarked.
rules on what to eat and drink, how to dress and act, how to write and speak were gingered with quaint advice on specific ills, health remedies which W was fond of sprinkling in his pointed, practical notes.
97 he was not one to beat down his subordinates while preserving a broad respectful back to his superiors. he was as open and outspoken to cabinet ministers as to his lay preachers.
practically all his regular teachers sprang from the single social stratum between unskilled labor and the middle class. but the middle class, smaller than, was much better educated in the 18th than in the 19th century outside London, though not so in London. all teachers had the basis of an elementary education and a few of them the bare rudiments of a classical one.yet their education was a continuous growth. their early years, however, gave a bias to their outlook which their leadership affirmed in the movement. they belonged to a class just below the middle class - skilled artisans, small farmers and tradesmen in business for themselves in a modest way. their parents were preponderantly Anglican and only sparsely Dissent. all preachers showed religious hunger in youth. but almost without exception they were an instance of complete equality of opportunity and democratic mobility.
99...give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth.
Chapter 8 - The Core of Religion
'I shall endeavour to show, declared John Wesley in the delivery of his fourth discourse on the Sermon on the Mount, that Christianity is essentially a social religion and that to turn it into a solitary one is to destroy it. the core of religious ethic was a socialization of will. 'the Gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social, no holiness without social holiness.
no mouthing of cant phrases, no vain repetition of theological formulas, no exclusive monopolistic interpretation of religion was this. to exclude religion from any department to human affairs was to maim and deform it. human fellowship, cooperation and service were at the heart of the Evangelical Revival. a saved soul was a social factor, for no man lives unto himself.
the foundations of the Methodist movement were ethical, practical and experimental rather than doctrinal, theoretical or metaphysical.
its ideal disciple, Wesley declares, love every man as his own soul.
as he has time and opportunity, he does good towards all men
-neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies - not only to their bodies by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those that are sick or in prison, but much more does he labor to do good to their souls.
beware the sins of omission, he adds.
in 'An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion' W states the heart of his problem: 'we see (and who does not?) the numberless follies and miseries of our fellow
101 creatures. we see on every side either men of no religion at all or men of a lifeless, formal religion. we are grieved at the sight, and should greatly rejoice if by any means we might convince some that there is a better religion to be attained - a religion worthy of god that gave it. and this we conceive to be no other than love, the love of God and of all mankind.
'this love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of men. wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness going hand in hand. there is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long suffering, the whole image of God and at the same time a peace that passeth all understanding and joy unspeakable and full of glory.
'this religion we long to see established in the world, a religion of love and joy and peace, having its seat in the inmost soul, but ever showing itself by its fruits continually springing forth, not only in all innocence (for love worketh no ill to his neighbor) but likewise in every kind of beneficence, spreading virtue and happiness all around it.
in the preface to his sermons he remarks: 'we may die without the knowledge of many truths and yet be carried into Abraham's bosom. but if we die without love, what will knowledge avail. true religion does not consist in meat and drink or in any ritual observances, nor indeed in any outward thing whatever, in anything exterior to the heart. only one condition exists: 'all things are possible to him that believeth.
VERY EXCELLENT THINGS ARE SPOKEN OF LOVE; it is the essence, the spirit, the life of all virtue. it is not only the first and great command, but it is all the commandments in one...not that this forbids us to love anything besides God; it implies that we love our brother also.
...no one could be a good Methodist without engaging in SOCIAL ACTIVITIES.
the rules demanded it. the existence of
102 social distress was held to impose a special obligation upon Methodist. good works themselves were quite meritless. it was the habitual disposition that was basic.
'WITHOUT THIS ALL IS OF NO VALUE, it affirmed.
Methodists were requested to abstain from 'fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law with brother, returning evil for evil. the necessary fruit of temper was manifested in the
'THE HUNGERING AND THIRSTING TO DO GOOD IN EVERY POSSIBLE KIND.
NO note of CONDESCENSION was to be tolerated.
'give none that asks relief either an ill word or an ill look. do not hurt them. (when W relieved poor people in the street he always removed his hat when they thanked him.) no credit was to be sought - 'DO IT IN AS SECRET A MANNER AS IS POSSIBLE.
Wesleyans were enjoined to constant vigilance in the attention to distress within the societies, but they were warned they must not allow their 'love or beneficence (to) be confined to Methodists.
members manifested an aggressive interest in distress about them. mutual helpfulness and spontaneous friendliness rather than a calculating apportionment of alms were the dominant tone. the sheer felt imperative to give was so strong that self denial was no burden.
W made it possible for the poorest of the poor to make contributions to social well being. classes were so organized to make social obligations inescapable. paying their pennies every week, they were contributing in some degree to the support of the SICK, the DISTRESSED, the POOR, and the FRIENDLESS. the burdens of others were on the hearts of all.
insistence upon right conduct, moral duty, moral responsibility led Methodists out from a merely personal impotence for unlimited strength. its religious psychology rejected human moral weakness as unnatural and acquired disability. it's effect on the population rooted in servility was revolutionary. a man might be born into
103 laboring section of society, but he might gain a higher rank if he showed unusual abilities. W hewed out a new status for the individual as a civic personality.
were people brought into erroneous opinions by this concept of religion? 'it matters not a straw whether they are or no (I speak of such opinions as do not touch the foundation); it is scarce worth while to spend 10 words about it. W was sick of opinions; he was weary to hear them; he loathed this frothy food. 'whether they embrace this religious opinion or that is no more concern to me than whether they embrace this or that system of astronomy. are they brought to holy tempers and holy lives? ... are they brought to the love of god and the love of heir neighbor? pure religion undefiled is this. how long will you darken counsel by words without knowledge? the plain religion now propagated is Love. and can you oppose this without being an enemy to mankind?
this did not mean indifference to truth, but when men persecuted Methodists because they disliked their opinions. W said, 'Remove your emphasis, gentlemen.
ask not what are our opinions, but what are our lives?
do we make the world better?
if so do not oppose us so bitterly.
ignorance, cruelty, vice, misery and poverty were rampant among the teeming multitudes of me. W had unflagging faith that Christ would redeem them and that he was the humble and active instrument in the work of redemption. he was to make men vitally conscious of god. 'rest not till you enjoy the privilege of humanity, the knowledge and love of God. lift up your heads, ye creatures capable of God! lift up your hearts to the source of your being.
his great sermon of Free Grace, a vigorous attack of Calvinism which aroused the ire of Toplady and his followers, contains trenchant passages: 'this is the blasphemy
104 clearly contained in the horrible decree of predestination! and here I fix my foot. on this I join issue with every assertor of it. you represent God as worse than the devil, more false, more cruel, more unjust. but you say you will prove it by Scripture. Hold! what will you prove by Scripture? that God is worse than the devil? it cannot be. whatever that Scripture proves, it never can prove this; whatever its true meaning be, this cannot be its true meaning... it cannot mean, whatever it means besides, the God of truth is a liar. let it mean what it will, it cannot mean that the judge of all the world is unjust. no Scripture can mean that God is not love or that His mercy is not over all His works; that is, whatever it proves beside, no scripture can prove predestination.
in a fiery outburst w goes on; 'Call it therefore by whatever name you please, election, preterition, predestination or reprobation it comes in the end to the same thing...the sense of all is plainly this: by virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved and the rest infallibly damned, it being impossible that any of the former should be damned or that any of the latter should be saved.
'Oh, how would the enemy of God and man rejoice to hear these things were so! how would he cry aloud and spare not! how would he lift up his voice and say, 'to your tents, O Israel! Flee from the face of this God or ye shall utterly perish! but whither will ye flee? into heaven? He is there. down to hell? He is there also. ye cannot flee from an omnipotent, almighty tyrant. and whether ye flee or stay, I call heaven His throne and earth His footstool to witness against you. ye shall perish, ye shall die eternally. sing, oh hell and rejoice ye that are under the earth, for God, even the mighty God, hath spoken and devoted to death thousands of souls, from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof! here , oh death, is thy sting! they shall not, cannot escape, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. here, oh grave, is
105 thy victory! nations yet unborn, or ever they have done good or evil, are doomed never to see the light of life, but thou shalt gnaw upon them forever and ever. let all those morning stars sing together who fell with Lucifer, son of the morning! let all the sons of hell shout for joy! for the decree is past and who can disannul it?
Charles Wesley summed up the matter in a memorable epigram -
'to damn for falling short,
of what they could not do,
for not believing the report
of that which was not true.
there were no hedging this-or -else clauses. this was the gist: 'to believe is to walk in the light of eternity.
yet misery was overspreading the land as a flood and daily increasing. the believer must buttress his faith by social well doing. 'behold the day of the Lore is come. he is again visiting and redeeming His people. having eyes see ye not? having ears, do ye not hear, neither understand with your hearts? at this hour the Lord is rolling away our reproach. already his standard is set up. His spirit is poured forth on the outcasts of men and His love shed abroad in their hearts. love of all mankind, meekness, gentleness, humbleness of mind, holy and heavenly affections, do take place of hate, anger, pride, revenge and vile or vain affections... and those who thus show their love of God, show they love their neighbors also, by being careful to maintain good works, by doing all manner of good, as they have time, to all men. they are likewise careful to abstain from all evil. cursing, sabbath breaking, drunkenness, with all other (however fashionable) works of the devil are not once named among them. all this is plain demonstrable fact. for this also is not done in a corner. now do you acknowledge the day of your visitation? do you bless God and rejoice therein?
106 was this enthusiasm? (def - any of various forms of extreme religious devotion, usually associated with intense emotionalism and a break with orthodoxy.) W's religion was rational as well as Scriptural. 'it is as pure from enthusiasm as from superstition...who will prove that it is enthusiasm to love God, even though we love Him with all our heart?
he refused to be called a mystic.(def- a person who claims to attain or believes in the possibility of attaining, insight into mysteries transcending ordinary human knowledge, as by direct communication with the divine or immediate intuition in a state of spiritual ecstasy.
'it is best to drop the quietists and mystics altogether and at all hazards keep to the plane, practical written word of God. yet we can tax him with boundless credulity (def - willingness to believe or trust too readily, esp. without proper or adequate evidence; gullibility . in every incident great or small that turned out well he saw like Bunyan a special providence. 'He who governed the world before I was born shall take care of it likewise when I am dead'. and a mystic grace and glow brighten this passage on the infiniteness of God. 'Suppose there are more worlds than there are sands on the seashore, is not the universe finite still? it must be, unless it be God. and if it be finite, it can still bear no proportion to Him that is infinite - no more than this ball of earth does. how large so ever it be, still, compared to Him, it is as nothing as the small dust of the balance. do you ask then, what is this spot to the great God. why, as much as the millions of systems. great and little have place with regard to us, but before Him, they vanish away. enlarge the bounds of creation as much as you please; still it as but a drop to the Creator'.
'and still the power of His Almighty hand
can form another world from every sand.'
'yet were this done, he adds, there would be no more proportion than there is now between Him and His creatures. in this respect, one world and millions of worlds are just the same thing. is the earth a cypher, a nothing, to the infinitely great, glorious, wise and powerful God? so is any number of worlds which can be conceived: so is all finite being to the infinite'.
107 the true christian does all possible good of every possible kind to all men. when giving a definition of an altogether christian' , he affirmed 'it means among other things the love of our neighbor. and lest anybody should be in doubt as to 'who is my neighbor', he adds, 'every man in the world'.
'I reverence these ancient christians (with all their failings) the more because I see so few christians now, because I read so little in the writings of late times and hear so little of genuine christianity.
but W and his followers never stinted their christianity. he gave them rules to be polite, honest, gentle, loving, kind and courteous to all men.
who is a christian indeed? what does the term imply? 'he is full of love to his neighbor, of universal love, not confined to one sect or party, not restrained to those who agree with him in opinions, or in outward modes of worship, or to those who are allied to him by blood or recommended by nearness of place. neither does he love those only that love him or that are endeared to him by intimacy of acquaintance. but his love resembles that of Him whose mercy is over all His works. it soars above all these scanty bounds, embracing neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies, yea not only the good and gently, but also the forward, the evil and unthankful. for he loves every soul that God has bade, every child of man, of whatever place or nation... and this universal, disinterested love is productive of all right affections. it is fruitful of gentleness, tenderness, sweetness, of humanity, courtesy and affability.
constant in emphasis that christianity is not a solitary religion, that love of God leads to social and spiritual redemption, that a true christian advances peace and good will among his fellow creatures, promotes the happiness of mankind, what then is a Methodist?
108 'the distinguishing marks of a Methodist are not his opinions of any sort. his assenting to this or that scheme of religion, his embracing any particular set of notions, his espousing the judgment of one man or of another are all quite wide of the point. whosoever, therefore, imagines that a Methodist is a man of such or church an opinion, is grossly ignorant of the whole affair; he mistakes the truth totally.
what then is the mark? who is a Methodist according to your own account? I answer: a Methodist is one who has the love of God shed abroad in his heart and has this commandment written in his heart: that he who loveth God loves his brother also. loves not only god but loves his neighbor as himself and does good unto all men, neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies.
these are the principles and practises of our sect; these are the marks of a true Methodist. if any man say, 'why, these are only the common fundamental principles of Christianity! Thou hast said; so I mean, this is the very truth. I know they are no other.
Chapter 9 - The Evil of Riches
'let the world be as corrupt as it will, challenged W, is gold or silver to blame? to which the obvious answer was, 'the fault does not lie in the money, but in them that use it. 'it may be used ill and what may not? but it may likewise be used well. it is full as applicable to the best as to the worst uses.
W not only extolled the economic virtues, but he endowed his followers with a special capacity for successful economic enterprise. with unhesitant terseness Methodist were exhorted:
Gain all you can.
Work as a condition of happiness.
A persistent industriousness was the mark of moral character.
'fervent in spirit, not slothful in business' had acquired the force of law. 'every man that has any pretence to be a christian will not fail to school himself rigorously to the business of his calling, seeing it is impossible that an idle man can be a good man - sloth being inconsistent with religion.
111 ...the idea of a frugal and strictly self-disciplined moral life was defined not as the virtue of any one class but an indispensable test of all men whatever their social status. although riches were not in themselves held to be evil and it is no more sinful to be rich than to be poor, yet 'it is dangerous beyond expression because of its effect
112 upon the life of the possessor. the reason was obvious. riches cannot give happiness when happiness is defined in spiritual terms. riches seduce men to concentrate upon material satisfactions. the idea of moral character is life of serious purpose, austerity in manners, frugality, instead of self indulgence. riches divert men to 'the love of the world, desire of pleasure, of ease, of getting money. it makes Methodists unwilling to do hard things, to toil and to sacrifice. it nurtures self indulgence and pride. furthermore it raises a consciousness of inequality among men. how hard it is for the rich, exclaimed W, not to think themselves better than the poor, base, uneducated heard of men! then secondly by spending for luxuries and being 'content with what plain nature requires', the rich divert to their own luxury what would serve to supply the necessities of the community. 'I apprehend by a rich man here is meant not only a man that has immense treasures, one that heaped up gold as dust and silver as the sands of the sea but any that possesses more than the necessaries and conveniences of life.
God was working out a moral purpose in social institutions which only faulty human will at points thwarted had no exclusive control of possessions. 'as to yourself, wrote W to a man of property, you are not the proprietor of anything, no, not of one shilling in the world. you are only a steward of what another entrusts you with, to be laid out, not according to your will, but his.
the worthiness of W's doctrine does not lie in its originality but in the thoroughness and sincerity with which it was set forth as a fresh and imperative requirement. the essence of stewardship was defined to be not control for personally chosen ends, but control for a definite moral purpose. those who use property in any form for any other purpose than that dictated by christian and wasting their Lord's good and by that very means
113 corrupting their own souls, but also violating the rights of the community. it is but like keeping money from the poor to buy poison for ourselves. the moral use of money was the obligation of stewardship.
was all money then to be thrown into the sea? such an affirmation was mere empty rant, said W. such an affirmation was mere empty rant, sad W. God and silver, he argued, is 'an excellent gift of God, answering the noblest ends. in the hands of His children, it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked; it gives to the traveler and the stranger where to lay his head. by it we may supply the place of an husband to the widow and of a father to the fatherless. we may be a defence fro the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain; it may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame, yea, a lifter up from the gates of death...
'we ought to gain all we can, without buying gold too dear, without paying more for it than it is worth.
but the criterion of behavior remained: what would make one most useful? the first claim was economic dependence of the possessor. one must owe no man anything and one must provide for the necessities of oneself and one's dependents. those necessities were carefully appraised in the light of what are 'reasonable wants'. we are not forbidden 'the providing for ourselves such things as are needful for the body; a sufficiency of plain wholesome food to eat and clean raiment to put on. yea, it is our duty, so far as God puts it into our power to provide these things also. but riches are not to be used for self-indulgence such as high eating and drinking, fine clothes diversions.
the worst possible use is to accumulate money for posterity. inherited wealth is a prime evil, for it will be certain to injure those who receive it. having provided
114 a basis for a self respecting and independent life there was no further justification for accumulating wealth. 'therefore I charge you, said W, do not increase your substance.
in 3 plain rules in a sermon on the use of money the first great rule of christian wisdom with respect to money was,g
gain all you can,
Gain all you can by honest industry.
use all possible diligence in your calling.
lose no time...
never leave anything till tomorrow which you can do today.
and do it as well as possible.
do not sleep or yawn over it; put your whole strength to the work
spare no pains...gain all you can by common sense, by using in your business all the understanding which God has given you.
it is equally imperative that one live without ease and luxury.
2. having gained all you can by honest wisdom and unwearied diligence,
the second rule of christian prudence is, 'Save all you can'. do not throw the precious talent into the sea...expend no pat of it merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life...
3. but let not any man imagine that he has done anything barely by going thus far, by 'gaining and saving all he can' if he were to stop here. it is mandatory that all the remainder, after providing fro the necessities of life, be devoted to satisfy the needs of the community. 'all who observe the first 2 rules, 'to gain and to save' without the third, to give all they have will be twofold more the children of hell than ever they were before.
'no more sloth...no more wast...no more covetousness! but employ whatever God has intrusted you with in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree, to the household of faith, to all men! this is no small part of the wisdom of the just.
116 when W had 30 pounds a year, he lived on 28 pounds and gave away 40shillings.
the next year receiving 60 pounds, he still lived on 28 and gave away 32.
the third year he received 90 pounds and gave away 62. the fourth year he received 120 pounds. still he lived on 28 and gave to the poor all the rest. in this ratio he proceeded during the rest of his life. 18 years preaching netted him together a debt of 1236 pounds.
in 1776 he received a communication from the Commissioners of Excise saying they could not doubt but he had plate for which he had neglected to make any entry. W's reply was succinct.
117 London, Sept. 1776
Sir, I have 2 silver teaspoons at London and 2 at Bristol. this is all the plate which I have at present and I shall not buy any more wile so many round me want bread.
I am, sir. Your most humble servant, John Wesley
W's income from the unprecedented sale of his tracts, pamphlets, books - between 30 and 40,000 pounds - made him a rich man, but never did he spend upon his personal needs more than 30 pounds a year allotted him by the London circuit. in the country Methodists were occasionally paid their hostelry (def - relating to staying in an inn) bill and other similar expenses incurred in traveling. according to Dr. Whitehead, in the course of 50 years W gave away between 20 and 30,000 pounds. (My wife used to tell me, 'My dear, you are too generous, you don't know the value of money'.) besides he bequeathed his book business and books then on sale to the Methodist conference. when Robert Dall asked for money to build a preaching house, he replied, 'this in no time of year for making collections... I see no way but who will lend? adding a note of encouragement 'I will be security for 40 pounds more. Look up!
his example in matters of money influenced his followers. during the years 1770-89 London Methodists gave away to the poor some 15,000 pounds.
in 1743 W wrote: 'I will now simply tell you my sense of these matters, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear. food and raiment i have - such food as i choose to eat and such raiment as I choose to put on. I have a place where to lay my head; I have what is needful for life and godliness and I apprehend this is all the world can afford. the kings of the earth can give me no
118 more. for as to gold and silver, I trampled it under my feet... I desire it not; I seek it not ; I only fear lest any of it should cleave to me, and I should cleave to me and I should not be able to shake it off before my spirit returns to God... I will take care (God being my helper) that none of the accursed thing shall be found in my tents when the Lord calleth me hence. and hear ye this all you who have discovered the treasures which I am to leave behind me: if I leave behind me 10 pounds above my debts and my books or what may happen to be due on account of them - you and all mankind ear witness against me that I lived and died a thief and a robber.
...'Mr. W's real worth is demonstrated by nothing more convincingly than by his dying worth nothing. it proves... the influence which he acquired and long preserved...(Leeds Intelligencer
Chapter 10 - the Evils of Poverty
119 ...I aver, writes W, that in every part of England where i have been ( and I have been east, west, north and south..), trade in general is exceedingly decayed and thousands of people are quite unemployed. some I know to have perished for want of bread...
'I have seen wretched creatures within little more than 100 miles of London, standing in the streets with pale looks, hollow eyes, and meagre (def - deficient in quantity and quality) limbs, or creeping up and down like walking shadows. I have know families, who a few years ago lived in an easy genteel manner, reduced to just as much raiment as they had on and as
120 much food as they could gather in the field. to this one or other of them repaired once a day to pick up the turnips which the cattle had left, which they boiled, if they could get a few sticks or others ate them raw. such is the want of food to which many of our countrymen ate at this day reduced by want of business.
'we may as well all be hanged as starved to death, was the common sentiment...
from 1740 -1800 discontent continually prevailed which fared up in frequent riots and serious disorders. loads of meal and flour were stopped and taken; crowds of women cut the sacks and took away the grain. they resented attempts to export corn while people were starving. Colliers in 1740 unable to buy grain plundered from the granaries all that they required. cornfactors (an agent entrusted with with the possession of goods (in this case harvested corn) to be sold in the agent's name; a merchant earning a commission by selling goods belonging to others)kept up the price of grain and in addition closed their shops, preventing the sale of any grain. The Country Journal or Craftsman, Feb. 16,1740, speaks of the great numbers of poor wretches perishing with hunger and cold and the streets swarming with beggars...
121...food riots were frequent through 1750-60...
...wages rose between 1760 and 1813 by 60% and the price of wheat by 130% the normal laborer even with constant employment was no longer solvent. besides he lived under the capricious tyranny of the old law of settlement which froze him in his own parish. to seek employment elsewhere meant starvation...
123 in the year 1740 foodstuffs were meagre, prices rising, discontent raging and the laboring class suffered a plague of human misery. their patience was at the breaking point, their behavior surly, angry and violent. there was no amelioration in the shape of cheaper and ampler supplies of he staff of life. instead authorities called out the soldiers, armed the civilians, arrested most to the ring-leaders...
judicial savagery went on unabated ..
124 ...a frequent visitor bluntly asserted that England was the only country in Europe where the people were murdered by the law. at one old Bailey sessions 24 unfortunates were sentenced to death mostly for theft and robbery; ...1785 was the blackest in English judicial history - nearly 500 were sentence to death. ..for ..petty offences...
125...real justice was hard to come by. 'suppose a great man... oppress the needy; suppose the rich grind the face of the poor; what remedy against such oppression can he find in this christian county? if the one is rich and the other poor, doth not justice stand afar off?
...W knew the poor better than any man of his age. 'if you could see these thing with your own eyes, could you lay out money on ornaments and superfluities? something was 'rotten in the state of Denmark'...and he made Methodism the kind of religious movement that devoted itself to the removal of these evils, even though the reform he most earnestly sought was a moral and religious one.
127 But where is the remedy? (and then a list of things ending with )
8. how may the taxes be educed? by discharging half of the national debt, and so saving at least 2 millions a year
chapter 11 - Relief of the Poor
128 Wesley led the way for Methodists to practise social duties. at his London headquarters he repeatedly provided for the poor. in 1763 great numbers of poor people and 'pease and pottage and barley broth' given them at the foundery 'at the expense of Mr. W, and on Sunday there was a collection for further supplying the necessities of he poor when upwards of 100 pounds was collected.on occasions in depression he and his followers were feeding from 100 to 150 persons a day in a single place. they raised money to clothe and relieve prisoners and unfortunate, in 20 years London Methodists gave to the poor about 15,000. this was remarkable when it is remembered that many members themselves were poor...
129 W's own pity and courtesy came out in his advice to the stewards. to guard against grieving the poor, he exhorted them to 'give soft words if nothing else. abstain from either sour looks or harsh words. let them be glad to come, even though they should go empty away. put yourself in the place of every poor man, and deal with him as you would God should deal with you.
on Friday, Nov. 2, 1750, he wrote in his diary; 'I began taking an account of all in the Society that were in want, but I was soon discouraged, their number so increasing upon me, particularly about Moorfields, that I saw no possibility of relieving them. in a letter to Ebenezer Blackwell he related how he had spent a gift of 5 guineas:
-to Eliz. Brooks expecting to have her goods seized for rent, 1 pound; 1 shilling
-to Eliz, Room ( a poor widow) for rent, 5 shillings
-towards clothing Mary Middleton and another poor woman almost naked, 10 shillings
-to John Edger, a poor weaver, out of work, 5 shillings
-to Lucy Jones, a poor orphan, 2 shillings
-to a poor family for food and fuel, 5 shillings
-to Christopher Brown, out of business, 2 shillings 6 d
-to an ancient woman in great distress, 2shilling 6d
distributed among several sick families, 10 shillings
on thurs. Feb. 8, 1753, W was again busy among the sick poor of London. 'but such scenes who could see unmoved. there are none such to be found in a pagan country. on his visits he 'found some in their cells underground; others in their garrets, half starved both with cold and hunger added to weakness and pain. 'but I found not one of them unemployed who was able to crawl about the room. a fortnight later he was visiting
130 once more. some of the sick upon whom he called were without fire 'bitterly cold as it was.
again he was out begging money to relieve the distress of the destitute. 'God's steward for the poor, he called himself. no wonder such a man was popular and no wonder that his presence was a loadstone (def - something that attracts strongly) drawing the poor around him. at Norwich a whole host of poverty-stricken people flocked about his carriage. his purse was low, containing only what was necessary to take him back to London, and thee clamor of the mendicant (def - practicing begging; living on alms) for once disturbed his temper. somewhat sharply he said, 'I have nothing for you. do you suppose I can support the poor in every place? at the moment he was entering his carriage his foot slipped and he fell upon the ground. feeling as though God had rebuked him for his hasty words, he turned to his friend Joseph Bradford and with subdued emphasis remarked, 'it is all right Joseph; it is all right; it is only what I deserved, for if i had no other good to give, I ought at least to have given them good words.
James Lackington says that in going the few yards from his study to the pulpit, w generally distributed a handful of half crowns to the poor old people of his society. nor did W confine himself to the care of his own societies. 'open your eyes, your heart, your hand, he writes to the societies at Bristol. 'if this one rule was observed throughout England, we should need no other collection. it would soon form a stock sufficient to relieve all that want and to answer all occasions.
the essential thing though in W's philanthropic activities was thee spirit or attitude in which he approached those whom he would help. important as was the relief he gave,in itself more precious was the quality of his giving. W never tried to be kind; he never patronized people. 'if you cannot relieve, do not grieve the poor.
RELIEF IS he felt MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE IF CARRIED INSTEAD OF BEING SENT.
'I visited as many as I could of the sick.
131 how much better is it when it can be done to carry relief to the poor than to send it! and that both for our own sake and theirs . for theirs, as it is so much more comfortable to them and as we may then assist them in spirituals as well as temporals, and for our own sake, as it is far more apt to soften our heart and to make us naturally care for each other.
stewards found great difficulty in visiting the sick. W called together the entire membership of the society in London, then numbering 4,000 and asked, 'who among you is willing, as well as able, to supply this lack of service? the next morning many willingly offered themselves. w chose 46 of the most 'tender loving spirits, ' divided the town into 23 parts, and appointed 2 to visit the sick in each division. the business of each visitor was to see every sick person within his district 3 times a week - not only to inquire into the state of their souls but to advise them, to inquire into their disorders and procure advice for them, to relieve them if they were in want, to do anything for them which he (or she) could do. individual members, preachers, leaders, as well as appointed visitors combined to make the service effective. it extended not only to members but others outside the societies. visitors were enjoined to observe strictly 4 rules:
1. be plain and open in dealing with souls
2. Be mild, tender, patient.
3. Be cleanly in all you do for the sick.
4. Be not nice. (note - a fool?)
'together with the more important lessons which you endeavor to teach all the poor whom you visit, it would be a deed of charity to teach them 2 things more which they are generally little acquainted with : industry and cleanliness. it was said by a pious man, 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'. indeed the want of it is a scandal to all religion, causing the way of truth to be evil spoken of. and without industry we are neither fit for this world nor for the world to come.
W's desire to help the poor led him to form the
132 christian community at the Foundery in 1772. through this society he secured a body of workers who regularly visited the workhouses in several of the London parishes and sought to 'improve and elevate the moral and social condition of the poor inmates. in addition he established at the Foundery a small poorhouse and in 1748 there were 9 widows, one blind woman, 2 poor children and 2 upper servants, a maid and a man. without money in sight W leased 2 houses 'warm and clean' as a home for destitute widows who ate with him and the preachers at the family table in the Foundery, for children of the poor who were like 'wild ass's colts' he opened his own house for a school of 60 children over 6 years of age, providing clothing for those who needed it and made the noted silas Todd preacher. in 7 years Todd trained 300 boys 'who were fitted for almost any trade'.
a melting pot indeed for all good things was the old Foundery - a home for W and his preachers, a house of mercy for widows, a school for boys, a dispensary for the sick, a work shop and employment bureau, a loan office and savings bank, a bookroom and a church.
2 experiments in the relief of economic distress were noteworthy. one attempted to provide employment. a small group of the poorest persons was set to work carding and spinning cotton in 1740, a scheme like our WPA, started by Thomas Firmin. the experiment was kept up for 4 months. on another occasion knitting was provided for women under the supervision of the society's visitors to the sick. an experiment of longer duration and greater success was the provision of 1746 of a loan fund from which deserving persons could borrow amounts up to 20 shillings to be repaid in 3 months. the scheme worked - in less than a year 250 persons were assisted - and later was enlarged, the borrowing limit increased in 1772 to 5 pounds. among the beneficiaries was the cobbler James Lackington who in 1775 borrowed 5 pounds with which to
133 start a second hand bookshop in connection with his shoe shop. the new business grew more rapidly than his cobbling and in the course of time he gave up the latter. the book business developed into the largest second hand bookshop in London, if not in the world. the year W died, Lackington's profits amounted to 5,000 pounds.
as a result of W's teaching and example the Strangers' Friend Society was established and found enthusiastic and liberal support in him. 'in the morning I met the Strangers' society, he says, instituted wholly for the relief, not of our society, but for poor, sick, friendless strangers. I do not know that I ever heard or read of such an institution till within a few years ago. so this also is one of the fruits of Methodism. the idea behind the Strangers' Society spread rapidly among the Methodists and by 1800 most of the large centers of population supported a similar enterprise. the society not only saved souls but gave food and raiment as well. thousands were relieved. in 12 years in Manchester alone 6, 403 pounds were expended on relief and over 60,000 assisted.
in his efforts to help the sick poor and recognizing the inadequacy of provisions for public health, W started the first free medical dispensary in England in 1746 which treated large numbers of people. he had for his assistants an apothecary and an experienced surgeon and sometimes Dr. Whitehead, a local preacher, who for many years had been his personal physician. he resolved at the start not to go beyond his depth 'but to leave all difficult and complicated cases to such physicians as the patients should choose. 'Medicines wee to be provided. all such persons, whether thy belonged to the society or not were invited by W to come to him every Friday. about 30 people came Dec. 5, 1746; in less than 3 months the number had risen to 500. the dispensary continued for several years, but the number of patients still increasing the expense was greater than W could bear, and in 1754 the work was discontinued.
134 of still greater importance than the dispensary was W's educational program in the matter of health. W was a vital pioneer of the national health movement. in 1747 appeared the long despised Primitive Physic or An Easy and natural Method of Curing Most Diseases. the booklet, easily slipped into the pocket, was immensely popular, running through 23 editions by 1828. no less than 7 editions appeared in America between 1764 and 1839. in addition w published Advices with Respect to Health Extracted from a Work of Dr. Tissot in which he protested against the current fondness for bleeding patients.
'if it be said, W remarked in Primitive Physic, 'but what need is there of such attempt? I answer, the greatest that can possibly be conceived. is it not needful in the highest degree to rescue men from the jaws of destruction? from wasting their fortunes as thousands have done and continue to do daily? from pining away in sickness and pain either though the ignorance or dishonesty of physicians, yea and many times throwing away their lives after their health, time and substance?
'is it inquired, 'but are there not books enough already on every part of the art of medicine? yes, too many 10 times over, considering how little to the purpose the far greater part of them speak. but, beside this , they are too dear for poor men to buy and too hard for plain men to understand. do you say, 'But, there are enough of these collections of receipts. Where? I have not seen one yet, either in our own or any other tongue which contains only safe and cheap and easy medicines. in all that have yet fallen into my hand, I find many dear and many far-fetched medicines, besides many of so dangerous a kind as a prudent man would never meddle with. and against the greater part of these medicines there is a further objection. they consist of too many ingredients. experience shows that one thing will cure most disorders, at least as well as 20 put together. then why do you
135 add the other 19? only to swell the apothecary's bill, nay possibly on purpose to prolong the distemper, that the doctor and he may divide the spoil.
certainly Primitive Physic contained odd remedies. for approaching the infirmities of old age W prescribed: ''take tar water every morning and evening...or a decoction of nettles ...or be electrified. but remember! the only radical cure is wrought by Death. yet the treatment advocated ( i clear and terse language) was eminently sensible: plain foods, abundance of fresh air, daily exercise and contented spirits. laugh as one will at the plums in Primitive Physic, the fact remains: wherever the spirit of Revival spread, there was spread the accompanying influence of temperance, cleanliness and sanitation, sick visitation, domestic hygiene, and sociability.
137 W frequently recommended the use of water internally and externally. in the text he recommends cold baths no less than 60 times. he was aware of the doctrines of Floyer and others and preached them with energy. 'everyone that would preserve health should be as clean and sweet as possible in their houses, clothes and furniture. he ascribed much of his good health to the scheme of life adopted from Cheyne. Cheyne condemned salt and seasonings, also pork, fish or stall fed cattle and recommended for food 8 ounces of animal and 1 jounces of vegetable food in 24 hours. for drink: 'Water is the wholesomest of all drinks, quickens the appetite and strengthens the digestion most. besides what W learned from Ch and the popular medicine of Tissot, he laid stress on constant exercise ad change of air, his never having 'lost a night's sleep, sick or well, on land or sea' - having sleep at command so that he could call it and it came - 'to a night's sleep, sick or well, on land or sea - having sleep at command so that he could call it and it came - 'to having risen for more than 60 years at 4 a.m., preaching at 5 and having so little pain or sorrow.
his perception of the interdependence of mental and bodily conditions - the concept of psychosomatic medicine - was unusual for his time. 'the passions have a greater influence on health than most people are aware of...
138 till the passion, which caused the disease is calmed, medicine is applied in vain. a woman came to him who had been treated by doctors for a constant pain in her stomach. the doctor did not know the cause of her trouble, but gave every likely drug a chance. 'whence came this woman's pain? asked W. 'from fretting for the death (which she would not have told had she never been questioned about it) of her son. just what availed medicine while that fretting continued? why then do not all physicians consider how bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind and in these cases which are utterly out of their sphere call in the assistance of a minister, as ministers when they find the mind disordered by the body, call in the assistance of a physician? if we substitute the word psychiatrist for minister - whose duties now as then took on aspects of the psychological - this advice is modern.
W was the child of his age - able to see the rational features in the practice of the best men of his time like Sydnham, Cheyne, Floyer and Fothergill. but at the same time he was saturated with superstitions that go back to the earliest legends of medicine. he did not pretend to special knowledge, but when we compare his methods with those of physicians, we find a good deal to admire or to excuse. as to treatment in general, W's was much better than that of his contemporaries in the respect that his remedies were never likely to be habit forming, blood destroying, or in other ways distinctly harmful. the others devastated their patients with violent drugs, bled them to extremities, salivated them and kept open sores running for weeks or months. W's consumptive living on milk and breathing in the turf every day was infinitely better off than Morton's and the patients of many others with their bleeding and gentle vomits and purges. besides, thousands who would have relied solely on deadly drugs and superstitions culled sound advice from Primitive Physic.
Chapter 12 - Educationalist, Editor and Author
141 if education means character building, the ability to live usefully and cooperatively, W was the greatest educationalist of the century. he and his preachers found many of the people in a semi-barbarous state, deeply sunk in ignorance and vice and almost lost in dirt and wretchedness and transformed them.
strictly speaking, W's educational program revolved about 3 distinct sorts of agencies - schools for elementary instruction, Sunday schools, and dissemination of popular literature. the actual organization was left to local initiative, but the number of charity schools scattered through out the societies were numerous.
W's educational theory expressed a strong religious bias, but he did maintain that everyone should have the advantage of education, that teachers should
interest children in things rather than words, and
should proceed from the known to the unknown.
Rousseau's Emile he found lighter than vanity, 'the most empty, silly, in=judicious thing that ever a self conceited infidel wrote...sure a more consummate coxcomb never saw the sun! but even the educators must not be mistaken with regard to the manner of instilling religion into children. they may lean to this or that extreme. 'the leaning either to one extreme or the other (if they either use no punishment at all or more than is necessary) may frustrate all their endeavors. in the latter case it will not be strange if religion stink
142 in the nostril of those that were so educated. they will naturally look upon it as an austere, melancholy thing, and if they think it necessary to salvation, they will esteem it a necessary evil and so put it off as long as possible. as far as this (the teaching of religion) can be done by mildness, softness and gentleness certainly it should be done unless religion be described as consisting in the love of God and our fellow men, 'it is no wonder if hose that are instructed therein are not better but worse than other men. for they think they have religion when indeed they have none at all and so add pride to all their other vices.
though W confessed his indebtedness to Milton and Locke, most of his convictions came from his mother. the rules he drew up for his schools at Kingswood and Newcastle were narrow and shortsighted,. the hour of rising was 4 a.m. and the time until 5 was to be spent in devotional exercises. on no day was any time allowed for play; children were never allowed o work alone - a master had to be present. the curriculum comprised not only the three R's, but also English, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, History, Geography, Chronology, Rhetoric, Logic, Ethics, Geometry, Algebra, Physics and Music. (when W made out such a list, he glowed with satisfaction.) he complained that the children took impish delight in breaking many rules.
a great impetus to education was given through the Methodist Sunday Schools. W adopted Raikes' idea with enthusiasm and lost no opportunity in urging societies to adopt it. they needed little encouragement, for
143 Methodist Sunday Schools quickly multiplied. before the end of the century a central Methodist Sunday School Society was formed to coordinate the worked in London. in Raikes' schools the teachers were paid. the feature of the Methodist Schools was a voluntary teaching staff. the content of instruction varied, though religious and moral instruction was of course central. there was no condescension in teaching, no attempt to fit the poor for industrial life and keep them docile. the important point was to teach them how to read.
the majority of the children had no other education than what they received at Sunday Schools. pupils did learn to read and the more intelligent acquired a useful general knowledge. W claimed that Sunday Schools restrained children from vice and taught them good manners. an interesting entry appears in the Journal for July 18, 1784. he preached in Bingley Chruch and before the serviced he stepped into the Sunday School which contained 240 children, taught every Sunday be several masters and superintended by the curate. 'I find these schools springing up wherever I go. perhaps god may have a deeper end therein than men are aware of. who knows but some of these schools may become nurseries for Christians.
if Sunday Schools were centers of instruction and breeding for children otherwise neglected, then John Wesley must be reckoned one of the leaders responsible for the growth of popular education.
the schooling of the century was ridiculously inadequate. before the institution of Sunday Schools the lower classes were illiterate. grammar schools were few in number and largely derelict. in 1734 there were no boys in the Birmingham School; sometimes in large centers of population only half a dozen boys were in attendance. for the poorer classes there was hardly any provision. the Charity School, started before W's day in 1698, was greatly fostered by the activities of the society for the
144 Propagation of Christian Knowledge. education consisted largely of reading and writing; afterwards boys were put out to handicraft trades and girls, with instruction in linen knitting and washing, put out to menial service. it was computed that by the middle of the century 5000 children had been thus educated, but later the influence of these schools dwindled.
excessive emphasis in Charity Schools was put on the difference of classes and he need for 'due consideration in the lower orders. education was coupled with the determination to reform them by the application of what Defoe aptly called 'the great law of subordination.
'God bless the squire and his relations.
and keep us in our proper stations -
a sentiment which was socially repugnant to W and his societies.
in addition to Charity Schools, whose greatest scope was in the metropolis, there were Dames' schools scattered over the country. an unmarried woman, sometimes in genteel poverty and sometimes in poverty not genteel, took some village children in order to eke out a livelihood. in almost all cases the Dame herself knew little and neither her teaching nor her control was effective. withe the industrial Revolution came Schools of Industry whereby pauper children were trained with a wage-earning object in view.
besides there were Methodist schools fro elementary instruction. W not only built Kingswood for the sons of his preachers, but made provision for children of the poor. at the Foundery, at the new Room in the Orphan House in Bristol and in Newcastle children wee taught and some housed. in each of the first great centers W established schools for the instruction of children. not that W was alone in the wish to reach the poor, but that others were unknown and isolated. w was famous and
145 had behind him a powerful body. the schools in London, Bristol and Newcastle were forerunners of a great number of lay schools which made methodism in the last century rank with the Church of England as the greatest force for popular education in England.
the service W rendered was reinforced by the spiritual transformation effected. the desire of the Methodists to read their Bible and to improve their minds led to a restless search for knowledge and a profound reluctance to remain in ignorance.
W considered his ministry of writing as important as his ministry of teaching and preaching. he knew that books to be of value had to be read and he knew too that people would read books for which they paid, however small the price. he perceived that ignorance and the christian religion were incompatible and inimical to each other. he set out first to crate an appetite for knowledge and then to satisfy it. hence, heedless of waspish criticism he pushed and sold books wherever he went and he prodded his preacher whose saddlebags were always packed with literature for sale to like efforts
Be not ashamed. be not weary. leave no stone unturned. thus W's cheap publications found their way into thousands of humble homes. indeed evangelical conversion had as a sequel the overcoming of illiteracy in the individual.
W's vivid , chaste, logical Saxon style was specially adopted to people's immediate needs. most publications sold at a small price, but for those too poor to buy, funds were forthcoming to provide literature. in 1782 he formed the Religious Tract Society to distribute religious tracts among the poor. men might not read the Bible, but a small tract might engage their attention for half an hour.
Justice has not been done to W both for the quantity and variety of his publications or for his pioneer
146 educational work among the masses. it is W who deserves the credit of having been the first in England to provide cheap popular literature of a useful kind. the starved and uninstructed minds of he workers in mines, fisheries, remote rural districts and in unschooled and neglected areas were now stimulated and nourished by pamphlets, books, Scripture and hymns, and cheap editions of some of he best books of the day. W too was among the first to open a vast popular market, in turning literature from dedicating books to the rich to making its appeal to millions. no man in the 18th century, says John Telford of W in the Encyclopedia Britannica, did so much to create a taste for good reading and to supply it with books at the lowest prices.
in a sermon written in 1780 W naively remarks: 'two and forty years ago, having a desire to furnish poor people with cheaper, shorter and plainer books than any I had seen, I wrote many small tracts, generally a penny apiece and after wards several larger. some of these had such a sale as I never thought of and by this means, I unawares became rich.
the campaign through a central office called the Book Room was a deliberate cultivation of a taste for reading. its success was unparalleled. the bookseller Lackington reported: 'there are thousands in this society who will never read anything besides the Bible and the books published by Mr. W.
'the work of grace, W said, would die out in one generation if the methodists were not a reading people. W helped to democratize learning.
the greatest popularizer of the age, against diffuseness in writing, W leveled the most industrious abridging pen before the Reader's Digest. this open air preacher
147 to ignorant mobs became also an 'historian, a biographer, a magazine editor, a writer of medical treatises, a producer of novels, a lexicographer, a translator of poems, a music critic, a philologist, a grammarian in half a dozen languages' (for the Kingswood School he wrote an English, a Latin, a Greek, a Hebrew and a French grammar) , 'a writer in natural philosophy, a poetry anthologist, a writer on logic, a political controversialist, an economist, an ecclesiastical historian, a Bible commentator and one of the most thorough literary dictators in history, Jack of all trades to many people, a universal genius. from such extremes as George Eliot and the Brontes, the singers of American Negro spirituals and the great poets of English Romanticism come voices modified by his.
richard green in his W Bibliography has 420 publications for John and Charles. some of these publications ran into as many as 20 editions. listed are 233 original works for John, more than 100 abridged, edited or revised by him, 8 for which he wrote the preface or notes, 20 by Charles Wesley alone, and 30 in their joint names.
John W's work was divided into 4 sections:
1. books and pamphlets explaining what Methodism was
2. rules and regulations for his followers
3. tracts, short publications, printed in thousands to be sold cheaply or given away. these include pamphlets addressed to the inhabitants of England and Ireland in times of special emergency, such as the earthquake scare of 1755 and at the time of the fear of French invasion and tracts on political matters such as smuggling, shortage of food, slave trade, American rebellion, etc.
4. lastly sermons. they all remain, says Leslie Stephen, on the level of terse, vigorous sense. the actual amount of theoretical speculation was small.
W read the best books on a subject, then extracted the more important passages and summarized their arguments. he never doubted his ability to abridge any book in the world. his method was to mark the important parts,
148 join up extracts, alter a few of the hard words, append notes taken from various authorities, add a preface and publish it. he seized on the most important points of any book he read. their many editions prove they were popular.
he had a horror of large books. everything he wrote had a practical end in view and he knew that those to whom he appealed had neither much money nor much time to spend upon bulky books. he often said to his friend Henry Moore, 'Ah, Henry, if angels were authors, we should have but few folios! in his Journal of Feb. 17,1769, he remarks: 'I abridged Doctor watt's pretty Treatise on the Passions. his 177 pages will make a useful tract of 24. why do persons who treat the same subjects with me, write so much larger books? of many reasons is not this the chief? we do not write with the same vie. their principal end is to get money; my only one to do good.
W admired Goldsmith's An History of the Earth and Animated Nature published in 1774 and 'almost repented of having written anything on the subject. his own A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation: or A Compendium of Natural Philosophy in 2 volumes had been published in 1763 and enlarged to 5 volumes in 1777 (third edition). his intention was 'to make men think and assist them in thinking. no sentences were spun out with an abundance of unnecessary words. the preface explains his aim:
'I have long desired to see such a compendium of natural philosophy as was
1. not too diffuse, not expressed in many words, but comprised in so moderate a compass as not to require any large expense, either of time or money.
2. not maimed or imperfect but containing the heads of whatever (after all our discoveries) is known with any degree of certainty, either with regard to the earth or heavens. and this I wanted to see.
3. in the plainest dress, simply and nakedly expressed,
149 in the most clear, easy and intelligible manner that the nature of the things would allow...
158 ...in 1778 W began The Arminian Magazine, consisting of Extracts and Original Treatises on Universal Redemption. the magazine gave W a chance to republish many of his sermons and to reproduce some of his books that had not secured great sales owing to their price. it influenced the Brontes and George Eliot. each issue consisted of four parts:
1. a defense of he doctrine: 'God willeth all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2. an extract from the life of some holy man
3. accounts and letters containing the experience of pious persons,
4. verses
the magazine frequently reported on scientific subjects too and printed extracts from scientific books. the number of Armenian Magazines printed at the period of W's death was 7,000. the circulation continued to increase to the number of 24,000 and then receded...
to a friend who complained that the magazine was too short, he replied by quoting Prior's Epistle to F. Shephard on Tonson the publisher -
Tonson, who is himself a wit,
weigh writers' merits by the sheet
and added: 'so do thousands besides, but AI do not write for these. i write for those who judge of books not by the quantity of them, who ask not how long, but how good they are. I spare both my reader's time and my own by couching my sense in as few words as I can.
A CHRISTIAN LIBRARY was begun in 1749 and completed in 1755. a prodigious number of books was read. some were abridged on horseback and others at wayside inns and houses where W tarried for a night. his effort was to make the masses acquainted with the galaxy of noblest men in the christian world. the Library comprised
159 abridgments or extracts of the choicest pieces of practical divinity published in the English tongue. he began with the Epistles of St. Clement and summarized or made extracts of the works of Fox, Bunyan, Baxter as well as a host of seventeenth and eighteenth century divines. he followed his usual method when he found blemishes, circumlocutions, (def - round about way of speaking) and repetitions.
50 volumes of the Christian Library suggest the breadth of this spiritual nourishment. W's labors in the project brought him no personal gain despite charges of his opponents. he himself confessed he lost money on the volumes. a Journal entry notes his preparation of 'the rest of the books for the Christian Library, a work by which I have lost about 200 pounds. perhaps the next generation may know the value of it.
'Let me make a nation's songs, says Carlyle on Burns, and you shall make its laws. with his brother Charles W caused the masses to break out into song. together they published 56 hymn books besides several tune books. the tunes were those in the classical style of the ancients. a collection of psalms and hymns issued in 1737 was probably the first hymn book for use in the Church of England. in the famous preface to the hymn book of 1779 he says:
'as but a small part of these hymns is of my own composing, I do not think it inconsistent with regard to the poetry.
1. in these hymns there is no doggerel, no botches, nothing put in to patch up the rhyme, no feeble expletives. 2. here is nothing turgid or bombastic on the one hand or low and creeping on the other. 3. here are no cant expressions, no words without meaning. those who impute
160 this to us know not what they say. we talk common sense, whether they understand it or not, both the purity, the strength, and the elegance of the English language and at the same time the utmost simplicity and plainness, suited to every capacity...
..In a Pocket Hymn Book for the Use of Christians of all Denominations, 1787, W goes on bluntly to say: 'Out of 232 hymns I have omitted 37. these I did not dare to palm upon the world, because 14 more, mere prose, tagged with rhyme and
...John W not only selected the tunes for the hymns but taught Methodists how to sing. he threatened to dismiss those preachers who sang more than 2 hymns at a service. Methodists sang lustily. only a cold sinner could hear the great concourse we of plain men and women rolling out, 'Blow ye, the trumpet blow, or 'O for 1000 tongues to sin, or 'Soldiers of Christ, Arise without being swept off his feet.The Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists sold by the millions.
before 1736 the Church of England had no hymn book. the psalms metrically rendered by Sternhold and Hopkins, or Tate and Brady, George Herbert's Temple and Jeremy Taylor's Golden Grove were in circulation together with devotional books in which hymns were included, but their were no hymn books. consequently congregational singing which W had learned from the Moravians appealed to people with the attractiveness of novelty. by expression of their religious experiences, they were led to a clearer definition of their doctrine. at the same time emotion was intensified by its expression..
162 ...'I doubt you had a dunce for a tutor at Cambridge, writes W to preacher Samuel Furly, and so set out wrong, did he never tell you that of all men living, a clergyman should talk with the vulgar/ yea, and write imitating the language of the common people throughout so far as consists with purity and propriety of speech?
Wesley's letter writing was carried on in moments snatched from other engagements. Dr. Johnson felt 'the cool of leisure, the stillness of solitude' necessary to the production of his letters. W's note to Furly on July 15, 1764, throws an interesting light on his method of composition. 'I never think of my style at all, but just set down the works that come first. only when I transcribe anything for the press, then I think it my duty to see that every phrase be clear, pure and proper. conciseness
163 (which is now, as it were natural to me) brings quantum sufficit of strength. if, after all, I observe any stiff expression, I throw it out neck and shoulders. adding in another letter, 'I scarce ever yet repented of saying too little, but frequently of saying too much.
in truth W showed remarkable literary power - at times writing with the fire and moving earnestness of a prophet, more often adopting a businesslike tone - direct, helpful, sympathetic, vigorous, dynamic, to the point. for example, this to Samuel Bardsley: 'Dear Sammy, I suppose John Atlay has paid the money. he is cautious to an extreme. I hear what angry men say or write, but I do not often regard it. lemonade with cure any disorder of the bowels (whether it be with or without purging) in a day or tow. you do well to spread the prayer meetings up and down. they seldom are in vain. Honest Andrew Dunlop (the assistant at Limerick) writes me word that the book money is stolen. pray desire him to take care that the knave does not steal his teeth. or this to John White: John white, whoever is wrong, you are not right.
'it would be difficult, says Leslie Stephen, to find
any letters more direct, forcible and pithy in expression. he goes straight to the mark, without one superfluous flourish. he writes as a man confined within the narrowest limits of time and space... the compression gives emphasis and never causes confusion. the letters, in other words, are the work of one who for more than half a century was accustomed to turn to account every minute of his 18 working hours.
W could speak plainly but not brutally. he tells Thomas Wride on Feb. 24, 1775:
'beware of your own spirit!
you bite like a bull dog.
when you seize, you never let go'.
more sharply a few months later after an outburst in one of wride's letters which had given great offense to the preachers in Ireland;
'such base language is too bad for the fishwives of billingsgate.
it is such as an
164 you must have done with it for ever if you desire to have further fellowship with John Wesley.
W did not write for fame. his object was to instruct and benefit people. he used no trappings to please or to gain applause. the distinguishing character of his style is brevity and clarity never did he lose sight of the rule which Horace gives:
concise your diction, let your sense be clear,
nor with a weight of words fatigue the ear.
he was not at ease when Whitefield preached, being constantly reminded of his 'luscious' method of speaking. W himself had the simplicity and clarity of Defoe, used the same homely illustrations and gave the same exact detail of events in a colloquial manner. his preachers were also trained and almost drilled in his methods and affectation. all fit into his standard: 'what is it that constitutes a good style? perspicuity and purity, propriety,strength and easiness joined together. where any of these is wanting, it is not a good style. Dr. Middleton's style wants easiness; it is stiff to a high degree. and stiffness in writing is full as great a fault as stiffness in behavior. it is a blemish hardly to be excused, much less to be imitated. He is Pedantic.(def - inappropriate display of learning) 'It is pedantry, says the great Lord Boyle, to use an hard word where an easier will serve. now, this the Doctor continually does and that of set purpose. it is abundantly too artificial. Artis est celare artem (it is the perfection of art to conceal itself), but his art glares in every sentence. he continually says, 'Observe how fine I speak! whereas a good speaker seems to forget he speaks at all...
'clearness in particular is necessary for you and me because we are to instruct people of the lowest understanding.
Chapter 13 - Agitation for Reform
'Go always not to those who want you, said W, but to those who want you most.
no social evil before Howard, Romilly and Bentham was more glaring than England's inept criminal jurisprudence and prison administration. the unique service of Wesleyanism consisted of the humane attitude it generated in the community. its record in the relief of prisoners included 3 kinds of activity - visitation, publicity regarding prison conditions and approval of reform movements. the official rules of the society which were standard after 1743 established 'visiting or helping them that are...in prison' as one of the conditions of membership. in 1778 the conference asked: 'is it not advisable for us to visit all the jails we can? and answered, 'by all means. there cannot be a greater charity. in one period of 9 months w preached at least 67 times in various gaols. the members of societies seemed to possess 'a peculiar talent for that benevolent work. the true motive for the universal practice of visiting gaols was mainly religious, but material needs were often relieved.
a simple constructive service was rendered in giving publicity to existing conditions in Jan, 1761, W wrote to the London Chronicle criticizing the degrading conditions at Newgate and pointing to a reformed Bristol Newgate administered by a Methodist gaoler as an example worthy of emulation by other prisons. 'Of all the
166 seats of woe this side hell few, I suppose, exceed or even equal Newgate. if any region of horror could exceed it a few years ago, Newgate in Bristol did, so great was the filth, the stench, the misery and wickedness which shocked all who had a spark of humanity left. and again: 'you may easily be convinced of this by going into either Ludgate or Newgate. what a scene appears as soon as you enter! the very place strikes terror into your soul. how dark and dreary! how unhealthy and unclean! how void of all that might minister comfort!
Gaolaer Dagge, converted by Whitefield, had instituted many changes at Bristol Newgate. cleanliness was present everywhere, fighting and brawling put down, any prisoner wronging another punished. drunkenness and whoredom were quite stopped while idleness was prevented as far as possible. the whole prison had a new face. 'nothing offends the eye or ear and the whole has the appearance of a quiet, serious family.
on May 13, 1739, W writes: 'every morning I read prayers and preached at Newgate. on Sept. 3, 1742, he went to visit a murderer and was surprised to find the doors open to him. 'I EXHORTED THE sick MALEFACTOR TO CRY UNTO GOD WITH ALL HIS MIGHT... it was not long before the rest of the felons flocked around. on Sunday, Aug 28, 1743, he was preaching in the Castle at Exeter and half the grown persons in the city 'had gathered for the service'. it was an awful sight 'to see so many people within the solemn prison walls. in Oct., 1761, he gave them another discourse. at the gaol in Whitley, he preached to the malefactors and was asked to go on and at Yorkshire, he preached to the prisoners at 6 o'clock on the morning of Apr. 28, 1779. the ground was covered with snow, but so many people attended that the service was held in the prison court. the snow continued to fall and the north wind to whistle round them.
the hardened criminal, the malefactor, the transgressor, reiterated W, could be justified by faith.
167 'my God is reconciled,
His pardoning voice I hear,
He owns me for his child,
I can no longer fear.
those in disease ridden, pestilential prison holes, numbers chained like beasts in dens, heard the message of grace and forgiveness and were comforted and uplifted in spirit.
'Sunday, Dec. 26, 1784. I preached the condemned criminals' sermon in Newgate. 47 were under sentence of death. while they were coming in, there was something very awful in the clink of their chains, but no sound was heard, either from them or the crowded audience, after the text was named; 'there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over 99 just persons that need not repentance. the power of the Lord was eminently present and most of the prisoners were in tears. a few days after 20 of them died at once, five of whom died in peace....
'Fri., 31. we had a solemn watch-night and ushered in the new year with the voice of praise and thanksgiving.
was what w preached an opiate and drug? suppose the prisoners had raged in their last moments of acted out a grotesquely comic spectacle before the thousands lined like rotten oranges at the windows and roof-tops year Tyburn. what would have been gained? had W come before their crime, perhaps he would not afterwards have needed to come at all. never did he blink or rationalize the fact that poverty leads to viciousness and crime, not vice versa. the prisoners were grateful that a kind and sincere person had shown concern for them, who brought tidings of a heavenly as well as human concern. exulting voices rose like psalms from dungeons and gallows:
'this is the happiest day I ever saw in my life',
'who can express the joy and peace I now feel',
'death has no sting for me',
'welcome halter',
'welcome gallows',
168 'I have peace within'.
of certain criminals, all received their punishment with perfect calm, 'appeared like giants refreshed with new wine.
what direct relation did W bear to the organized prison reform movement? Howard himself testified that W was a source of inspiration to him and W reciprocated by declaring: 'Mr. Howard is really and extraordinary man. God has raised him up to be a blessing to many nations
on Oct. 15, 1759, W walked to Knowle, a mile from Bristol, to see the French prisoners. he found they had only a few foul thin rags to clothe them. 18 pounds were collected and next day it was made up to 24. clothes were bought and carefully distributed to the most needy. 'I was much affected and preached in the evening on Ex.322.9: 'Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know that heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
4 abuses W did help directly to abolish. he contended for a lifetime against bribery and corruption in politics, against the Press Gang, against the plundering of wrecked vessels and against smuggling.
'act as if the whole election depended on your vote, he remarked in A Word to a Freeholder. in a letter to the Societies of Bristol he was emphatic on the subject. 'Beware of bribery. on no account take money or money's worth. keep yourselves pure. give, not sell your vote. He came to St. Ives, Cornwall, on the evening of an important election and took the opportunity of speaking to all his society who had votes. to his great satisfaction he found not one of them would consent to eat or drink at the expense of him for whom he intended to vote. one of them had received a bribe of 5 guineas, but straightway returned it. another not only refused to be bribed, but when
169 he heard his mother had accepted money privately, persuaded her to give it to him and then returned it without delay. in the Journal entry of Oct. 6, 1774, he advised voters,
1) to vote without fee or reward for the person they judged most worthy,
2) to speak no evil of the person they voted against and
3) to take car their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.
one thing was certain: Methodists became known as the most incorruptible voters in the realm.
the second abuse W fought against was the Press Gang. once when he was in the middle of a sermon, the Press Gang took off one of his hearers. W made the comment, thrice bitter: 'ye learned in the Law, what becomes of Magna Charta and of English liberty and property? are not these mere sounds while on any pretense there is such a thing as a Pres gang suffered in the land?
many magistrates found this a convenient method of getting rid of Methodists and especially Methodist preachers. unfortunately the protest was not at first effective because the close of the century brought with it a struggle which made the Press Gangs invaluable to the government
the third evil which W tackled was mainly confined to the Cornish coast. people plundered vessels wrecked on the rocks of their coast. the offence was made more heinous by a deliberate attempt to decoy vessels to their doom. when W preached there in 1743 he was in danger of his life. when he paid his last visit in 1789 he was received as a monarch and estimated the crowd which thronged to hear him at 'two or three and twenty thousand'. happily his life work had born fruit.
W waged unremitting war against the fourth evil - smuggling and 'smuggling villains'. in 1784 Pitt calculated that 13,000,000 pounds of tea were consumed in the kingdom of which only 5,500,000 had paid duty. Parson Woodforde, a truly good as well
170 as 'respectable' man, wrote on Mar. 29, 1777: 'Andrews the smuggler brought me this night about 11 o'clock a bag of Hyson Tea 6 pound weight. he frightened us a little by whistling under the parlour window just as we were going to bed. i gave him some Geneva and paid him for the tea at 10/6 per pound. the inhabitants of this inland rectory thought and spoke of Andrews the smuggler just as one might speak of Andrews the grocer.
in Methodism the most effective opposition to smuggling appeared. from the very beginning smuggling was banned by the same discipline which forbade the consumption of or traffic in spirits. the Conference of 1767 asked how smuggling could be abolished and the answer it supplied was:
1) speak tenderly and frequently of it in every society near the coast;
2 carefully disperse the Word to a Smuggler;
3) expel all who will not leave it off;
4) silence every local preacher that defends it
to reinforce the spoken word W wrote A Word to a Smuggler in 1767. the pamphlet was circulated in Cornwall and around the south coast where smuggling was notorious and where even strict and religious people were inclined not to ask questions when buying wines and lace. thousands of copies of A Word to a Smuggler were sold.
W was n. 'Open smugglers are worse than common highwaymen and private smugglers are worse than common pickpockets, for it is a general robbery; it is, in effect, not only robbing the king, but robbing every honest man in the nation. for the more a king's duties are diminished, the more the taxes must e increased. and these lie upon us all; they are the burden not of some, but of all the people of England. therefore every smuggler is a thief general, who picks the pockets both of the king and all his fellow subjects. he wrongs them all and above all the honest traders, many of whom he deprives of their maintenance, constraining them either not to sell their goods at all or to sell them to no profit.
171 ...what contribution did W, the outstanding man of the century, make to the abolition of human servitude? W's opposition to slavery was lifelong and bitter, if the latter term could be applied to one so full of kindness. it is probable that the determined attitude of Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, who declared that thee trustees of the colony refused 'to make a law permitting such a horrid crime' because 'it is against the Gospel as well as against the fundamental law of England' was in part due to W's influence. even 'the prince of pulpit orators', Georg Whitefield , condoned slavery. Whit could speak in terms of the highest indignation against slave owners who treated their dogs better than their slaves and made their horses work less hard than the human cattle they possessed. yet Whit not only approved of slavery upon the ground of scriptural authority and expediency, but had 50 slaves in his Orphan House
172 at Georgia and at the time of his death bequeathed them to the Countess of Huntingdon.
before 1778, Negroes had been brought to England and kept as slaves. Already 14,000 or 15,000 were in the country and open slave sales had taken place in England. a growing protest crystallized and began to assume the proportions of a popular movement. in this atmosphere W read an indictment of the slave trade by the Quaker Anthony Benezet. it focused all of W's energies in opposition to 'that execrable sum of all villainies, commonly called the slave trade. 2 years later in 1774 he published Thoughts Upon Slavery, a tract for popular consumption, phrased incisively and with fiery clarity. no more severe arraignment of slavery than this was ever written. it condemned slavery not only on religious grounds, but on grounds of human sympathy, political right and economic expediency. true, the only proposal was a personal appeal to individuals engaged in the traffic or who owned slaves. the use of organized political measures was rejected as useless. but the pamphlet was broadcast within and without the societies and given the widest circulation for many years.
a direct outcome was that the American Methodists' Conference in 1780 declared (before King cotton rolled like a juggernaut to crush out libertarian doctrine): every person holding slaves was acting contrary to the laws of god and man.
THOUGHTS UPON SLAVERY discussed the whole question. W quoted from official French reports to prove that in africa itself the black man lived happily and healthily, was well behaved, peaceable and religious, though this picture of idyllic life is overdrawn. Slave traders argued they removed Negroes from africa for their own good, generally w maintained a cool logical account of happenings, but towards the close the sweet Samaritan sole with rapt Isaiah's seraphic fire.
in what numbers and in what manner were the slaves
173 carried to America? 'Mr. Anderson in his History of Trade and Commerce observes: 'England supplies her American colonies with Negro slaves, amounting in number to about 100,000 every year', that is, so many are taken on board our ships, but at least 10,000 of them die in the voyage, about a fourth part more die at the different islands in what is called the seasoning. so that at an average, in the passage and seasoning together 30,000 die, that is, properly are murdered. O earth, O sea, cover not thou their blood!
'I would inquire whether these things can be defended on the principles of even heathen honesty, whether they can be reconciled (setting the Bible out of question) with any degree of either justice or mercy.
'the grand plea is, 'they are authorized by law'. but can law, human law, change the nature of things? can it turn darkness into light or evil into good? by no means. notwithstanding 10,000 laws, right is right and wrong is wrong still. there must still remain an essential between justice and injustice, cruelty and mercy. so that I still ask, who can reconcile this treatment of the Negros first and last, with either mercy or justice? ... Yea, where is the justice of taking away the lives of innocent, inoffensive men, murdering thousands of them in their own land, by the hands of their own countrymen, many thousands year after year on shipboard and then casting them like dung into the sea and tens of thousands in that cruel slavery to which they are so unjustly reduced?
'when they are brought down to the shore in order to be sold, our surgeons thoroughly examine them, and that quite naked, women and men, without any distinction; those that are approved are set on one side. in the meantime a burning iron, with the arms or name of the company lies in the fire with which they are marked on the breast. before they are put into the ships, their masters strip them of all they have on their backs, so that they come on board stark naked, women as well as men. it is
174 common for several hungered of them to be put on board one vessel where they are stowed together in as little room as it is possible for them to be crowded. it is easy to suppose what a condition they must soon be in between heat, thirst and stench of various kinds. so that it is no wonder so many should die in the passage, but rather that any survive it .
'when the vessels arrive at their destined port, the Negroes are again exposed naked to the eyes of all that flock together for the examination of their purchasers. then they are separated to the plantations of their several masters to see each other no more. here you may see mothers hanging over their daughters bedewing their naked breasts with tears and daughters clinging to their parents, till the whipper so obliges then to part. and what can be more wretched than the condition they then enter upon? banished from their country, from their friends and relations forever, from every comfort of life, they are reduced to a state scarce any way preferable to that of beasts of burden.
'but if this manner of procuring and treating Negroes is not consistent either with mercy or justice, yet there is a plea for it which every man of business will acknowledge to be quite sufficient. 50 years ago, one meeting an eminent statesman in the lobby of the House of Commons, said, 'you have been long talking about justice and equity. pray, which is this bill, equity or justice? he answered very short and plain, D--n justice, it is necessity...
'I answer you stumble at the threshold. I deny that villainy is ever necessary. it is impossible that it should ever be necessary for any reasonable creature to violate all the laws of justice, mercy and truth. no circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst in sunder all the ties of humanity. it wan never be necessary for a rational being to sink himself below a brute. a man can be under no necessity of degrading himself into a wolf. the
175 absurdity of the supposition is so glaring that one would wonder anyone can help seeing it.
' 'but the furnishing us with salves is necessary for the trade and wealth and glory of our nation'. here are several mistakes. for first wealth is not necessary to the glory of any nation, but wisdom, virtue, justice, mercy, generosity, public spirit, love of our country. these are necessary to the real glory of a nation, but abundance of wealth is not. ...but, secondly, it is not clear that we should have either less money or trade (only less of that detestable trade of man-stealing), if there was not a Negro in all our islands or in all English America. it is demonstrable, white men inured to it by degrees can work as well as they and they would do it, were Negroes out of the way and proper encouragement given them. however, thirdly, I come back to the same point. better no trade than trade procured by villainy. it is far better to have no wealth than to gain wealth at the expense of virtue. better is hones poverty than all the riches bought by the tears and sweat and blood of our fellow creatures....
'you kept them stupid and wicked by cutting them off from all opportunities of improving either in knowledge or virtue. and now you assign their want of wisdom and goodness as the reason for using them worse than brute beasts.
to the sea captains employed W pleaded; 'Quit the horrid trade; at all events be honest men. to the merchant: 'have no part in this detestable business. men buyers are exactly on a level with men stealers... give liberty to whom liberty is due, that is, to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature. let none serve you but by his won act and deed, by his won voluntary choice. away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion. be gentle toward all men.
it was obvious that if W wrote against slavery, he would preach against it. he delivered a sermon at Bristol, 'the den of slave traders.. 2 days' notice was
176 given of his intention. at the hour of meeting the hall was jammed. the next day was given to fasting and prayer that the 'poor outcasts' might find a way of escape and 'their chains be broken in sunder.
Methodists were not hesitant in cooperating with non-Wesleyan groups in the anti-slavery cause. 'whatever assistance I can give those generous men who join to oppose that execrable trade, I certainly shall give, wrote W. he expressed to Granville Sharp his 'perfect detestation of the horrid save trade. Wilberforce placed so high a value upon the cooperation of w and his followers that he sent anti-slavery literature to all methodist preachers. the Methodist Conference as early as 1780 passed a resolution condemning the trade. days of fasting and prayers were observed that God would remember the slaves. through the agency of methodist preachers the effort to boycott slave-produced articles spread. the Arminian magazine reminded methodists to ponder 'how many backs have sweated for the sweet your cane affords' - it was 'a drug composed of the slave dealer's sin and the slave's misery.
how thoroughly the members of the societies complied, how influential was their support is indicated by statistics of anti-slavery petitions. while 21 other non-conforming bodies including Roman Catholics secured 122,978 signatures, Wesleyans forwarded 229, 426 names.
if one give the credit of abolition to the Evangelicals, then one makes W father of the whole movement, for he made possible the Evangelical party and he remained the guide, counsellor and friend of its first leaders. far more than that, he was the inspirer and friend of those in the van of Negro abolition. hardly any name was more important. when Wilberforce. Clarkson and Granville Sharp are mentioned, the name of John W must also be included. he was a pioneer in the movement against slavery.
'I would to God, W thundered again in A Serious
177 Address to the People of England 'that we may never more steal and sell our brethren lie beasts, never murder them by thousands and tens of thousands! O may this worse than Mohammedan, worse than Pagan abomination be removed from us forever.
on his deathbed he had read aloud to him passages from Gustavus Vasa, the autobiography of a black slave. and it was fitting that the last important letter he wrote (February 24, 17910 should have been to young William Wilberforce.
'Dear Sir, unless the divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy, which is the scandal of religion, of England and of human nature. unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. but if god be for you, who can be against you? are all of them together stronger than God? o be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it... Your affectionate servant, John Wesley
on April 20, `1791, the Commons rejected Wilberforce's motion for the abolition of the slave trade by 163 votes to 88, though Pitt, Fox and Burke spoke in its favor and it was not till 1807 that the great victory was won.
the next rampart was carried in 1833: abolition of slavery in the West Indies. a major share in the agitation was taken by methodists.
Chapter 14 - The New Jerusalem
178 John W was a Church of England clergyman who constantly professed his allegiance to both church and state. as the church was considered by him an integral part of the state, love for one meant affection for the other . in politics he was wholeheartedly monarchial. the Methodism was allied to liberty or that his project was a fresh enterprise in contemporary society, he never realized. in politics as in so many other spheres, he was both realist and opportunist. he needed protection against the senseless mobs and this protection had to come from the state. HAD METHODISM SIDED WITH POLITICAL PARTIES, THE SAME FATE WOULD HAVE COME TO IT AS CAME TO THEM. Government never ceased to be hostile.
cobblers, tinkers, porters and hackney coachmen, wrote W during the excitement about John Wilkes, thought themselves wise enough to instruct both king and council. he concluded a eulogium on the throne with: 'if the best of kings, the most virtuous of queens, and the most perfect constitution could make any nation happy, the people of this country had every reason to think themselves so. yet as W quite forgot, it was he more than the first 3 that rescued the common people from moral and social paralysis and transformed them into useful, happy individuals and citizens. the seeds of radicalism and reaction lay together in Wesleyanism. nevertheless inherently democratic influences of the movement made it impossible ever to extirpate those sympathies.
179 W was not the man to mistake the institution of monarchy for the action of monarchs. he denounced Charles I because 'he persecuted godly men' although he blamed his ministers. Queen Mary and Elizabeth after her, he branded as persecutors of religious people. James i permitted the most atrocious cruelties to be practised on the Puritans and Charles II was guilty of casing thousands of men, guiltless of any crime, to be 'stripped of all they had... and driven to beg for bread...because they did not dare to worship god according to other men's consciences. Georg III was regarded by W as a man of understanding and good moral character (which he was).
the appeal to popular will uninformed by social purpose, said W, could result only in unhinging all government and plunging society into chaos. the end of the state was ethical. extend political power to the many headed beast, the ignorant people and society instituted for men's welfare would be overturned. the idea that the people were the origin of power was abhorrent to him. to refute it he used 2 arguments continually. the first was on historic grounds. he affirmed that there was but one instance in history when the people gave the sovereign power to one man. that was in the case of Massaniello of Naples. the second was on the grounds of impracticability. once you say people have power to appoint rulers, you affirm the right belongs to every man and woman and child, which, added W, nobody in his century really believed. probably the clear-brained, single minded W's detached attitude towards politics was that so long as man, 'the highest product of creation is rotten, the whole structure must be proportionately infirm, but make him sound and the surrounding elements will partake of the perfection embodied in their loftiest manifestation.
he had a naive view of the delegates of government - they should be 'men of sound judgment...overs of mankind, lovers of their country and lovers of their king, men
180 attached to no party, but simply pursuing the general good of the nation. existing evils of civil society arose from a denial of he moral responsibility of individuals and groups. individuals wee to feel free to work out their economic and social salvation in an orderly society. civil power originates in providence, but liberty of conscience and freedom of experience must be guaranteed - they are inseparable from humanity.
all tracts show W's exhortations for loyalty and obedience to the crown. in 1775 he published A Calm Address to Our American Colonies, based on Dr. Johnson' Taxation No Tyranny is a general essay: A Calm Address is a direct appeal. W's tract was rapid in tempo, easier to read. copies sent to America were never distributed. friends foreseeing the danger destroyed them. W's little pamphlet consisting of four pages and selling for 1d probably reached 100 readers were Johnson's labored and magisterial discussion reached one. perhaps 100,000 were circulated in England.
the government offered a reward, but the only reward W agreed to accept was 50 pounds from the privy purse to devote to charity. why did he write a Calm Address? 'I seriously answer not to get money...not to get preferment... not to please any man living, high or low; least of all did I write with a view to inflame any, just the contrary.
dissenters, most bitter, accused W of being a turncoat and of stealing the tract of Johnson without publishing his name. W was extremely careless about adding authors' names to the books he published. a month or so later he presented Dr. Jonson with a copy of his Notes on the New Testament. Dr. Johnson replied and thanked his for the book and for his support over the american question, closing with a magnificent compliment: 'to have gained such a mind as yours may justly confirm me in my own opinion.
181 the lecturer was surely in the right who though he saw his audience slinking away, refused to quit the chair while Plato stayed.
if the pamphlet had considerable influence in forming public opinion hostile to all concession, W shares a grave responsibility. without support the Tory government might have hesitated to persevere in armed conflict.
W was not an out and out pacifist, but war to him was the foulest curse men knew - a rebellion against humanity and
God. 'War is a horrid reproach to the christian name, yea, to the name of man, to all reason and humanity...in all the judgments of God the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness. when a land is visited with famine or plague or earthquake the people commonly see and acknowledge the hand of God. but whenever was breaks out, God is forgotten if He be not set at open defiance. A Calm Address tried to prevent the American Revolution. but when war came, W, adhering to his political tenets, supported the government.
the author managed with perfect honesty to get on the wrong side every time. yet he was against slavery and ironically spread that doctrine which the American Revolution helped to disseminate - freedom and opportunity for all. the spirit he awoke in England motivated reforms of the next century.
was England saved from Revolution by the Methodist Revival? did W forget 'the new Manchester in the New Jerusalem? the miracle of modern England, says Halevy was that if was anarchistic by orderly, practical and businesslike, but religious and even pietist. it was definitely on the side of king and government. though great unrest prevailed - several factors favored an upheaval: the jacobites, disturbances consequent upon the american War, the high price of food and economic distress in 1756-7 an later after 1770 and some sympathy with the French Revolution - a number of factors were working in the opposite direction. amongst these were
183 the Methodist movement, add the Hammonds, 'was a call not for citizens but for saints. but elsewhere the authors remark that it is significant that this religion spread most quickly among the workers living in the deepest gloom. perhaps the very dangers of their employment prompted them to see this special and miraculous sense of protection. could it be too that when W said to the brutish poor, 'You too can be saved as well as the rich. God loves all, they willingly responded? and the Hammonds admit that Methodism did not ignore man's duty to his neighbor. they go on to say: Methodism was in a very real sense a school, and when men and women go to school, they may learn more lessons than those taught on the blackboard. moreover, the early Methodists had the credit of introducing the teaching of writing in Sunday Schools. again it is significant that the speakers at miners' meetings were Methodists. finally the Hammonds admit Methodism made men better citizens and some even better rebels.
184 what Bentham says of slavery may be said of W's contribution: 'If to be an anti-slavist is to be a saint, saintship for me. I am a saint.
the revolution for 1789 powerfully attracted 3 classes in England - poets, reformers and republicans, the last most noisy and least important. for he rest of England it created no more than broad ripples on the surface of their emotions. the Reign of Terror disillusioned the idealists, alienated the reformers. Republicans might grow jubilant at the triumph of liberty in 1793, but to the English that was no reason for overturning their system. against England already possessed what the French were seeking to gain - constitutional rule, and absolutism an impossibility. France wished to uproot monarchial government; England wished to reform it. the English looked on the French Revolution as spectators.
if there was no danger of an English Revolution, a volume of discontent and agitation did exist. numerous Corresponding Societies were united only in their dissatisfaction with the existing order. but by far most wanted constitutional reform and sought it by pacific methods. as early as 1780 a committee of Westminster electors drew up a scheme for constitutional reform which anticipated every demand of the Chartists and demanded that all men regardless of property should ave a share in government. in the same year the society for Promoting Constitutional Information was formed and members drank the toast s of 'Magna Charta', 'the majesty of the People', and 'America in Our Arms,, Despotism at Our Feet.'. but beyond the pleasant thrill of drinking to Liberty, Constitutional Reform societies had little to justify their existence. even the leading one languished for lack of funds and backing. other societies existed under the name of 'Friends of he people'. but they too failed to interest the great mass of people outside.
185 more radical still was the London Revolutionary Society guided by the energetic Dr. Price. but the much vaunted London Corresponding Society in 1792 had no more than 3000 names on its books. some members spoke of physical force and even made a pathetically feeble attempt to arm themselves, but their efforts were ludicrous in effect.
more important than the societies were the individuals who fomented agitation. the Dukes of Norfolk and Richmond and Lords Lansdowne and Stanhope were openly sympathetic with the cause of the people. as fiery an orator as Dr. Price and as brilliant a scholar as Dr. Preistley took part in the agitation. Thomas Paine's books had a remarkable circulation. they were distributed not only in the Metropolis and larger towns but in obscure villages and isolated hamlets. Piggott's revelation of daring, Warning to Tyrants, The Voice of the people, Political Dictionary -scurrilous writings - and movement publications like Politics of the People and The Philanthropist had their vogue among the poorer classes. but if there was a flood of revolutionary and democratic pamphlets, yet the writings of those friendly to the government, Burke and Hannah More, were equally well distributed. the latter's Village Politics, elementary and homely, was distributed by the hundreds of thousands. England was not disturbed greatly by the French Revolution. such unrest as there was expressed itself through pamphlets and societies of reform.
W effected his great work in towns springing up which would have become centers of agitation. but political discontent then could not have been channeled into revolutionary turbulence.
Pitt's stern repressive legislation against the Corresponding Societies was successful because England was in sympathy with his views. the country was greatly excited but never roused to frenzy or kindled to revolutionary pitch. W did not avert a revolution in England.
186 for whether he lived or not, that would never have happened.
the points of agreement with Benthamism were many. W was at one with the Benthamites in his appeal to the principle of utility. the call to find happiness in this life and avoid eternal misery in the next was fundamentally the same appeal which Paley was making in theology and bentham in legislation. as Dicey remarks, Benthamism and Evangelicism represented the development of the same fundamental principle in widely different spheres - the principle of individualism. the appeal of the Evangelicals to personal religion corresponded with the appeal of Benthamite liberals to individual energy. indifference to the authority of the church was the counterpart of indifference to the authoritative teaching or guidance of the state. a low estimate of ecclesiastical tradition and historical criticism of the Bible bore a close resemblance to Bentham's contempt for legal antiquarianism. the theology which insisted upon personal responsibility and treated each man as himself bound to work out his own salvation had an obvious affinity to the political philosophy which regarded men almost exclusively as separate individuals, and made it the aim of law to secure for every person freedom to work out his own happiness.
it is not surprising that a similarity of theory produced s similarity of aims to effect humanitarian reforms. insistence confronts government with a challenge when people are unemployed and starving and when questions vital to general welfare are concerned.
what was the later Methodist attitude towards working
187 class movements? the Methodist Conference of 1812 declared: 'Our societies are uncontaminated with that spirit of insubordination, violence and sruelty which had caused so much distress and misery... we proclaim loudly and earnestly, 'Fear the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change. avoid them , come not near them'. succeeding conferences continued the same attitude. again the descendants of John Wesley regarded themselves as privileged people. protection of property, freedom of their worship, formation of their societies, establishment of their organization were evidently reckoned as privileges and not as the rights of ordinary citizens. in reality the privileges and not as the rights of ordinary citizens. in reality the privileges were part of the rights of common citizens. the idea of privilege left no doubt about their loyalty. through their devotion to this ideal they created a working class bourgeoisie from which the established order had nothing to fear.
Methodist implications were evidenced in the Manchester outrages. that so many wild and unlearned people shoud have been kept quiet and subissive in the days of intense suffering and agitation was one of the marvels of English social life. no minsters enforces the duties of patriotism and loyalty more than the Methodist preachers and no people were more observant of these duties than the Methodist people. Methodists were urged not to become party politicians and to KEEP ALOOF FROM ALL PARTY SPIRIT.
but to balance the ledger - a half truth is worse than a total lie - the democratic elements in Methodism were always more potent than the autocratic. the Wesleyan Conference was autocratic. by its pronouncements on politics it rightly earned the name of reactionary and conservative. but it did not always speak for the whole of Methodism
188 even when official pressure was brought to bear upon outstanding individuals, many private members retained their liberal views. lay Wesleyanism was more democratic than its conservative ministry and it richer members.
Chapter 16 - The Best of All
195 ...there was no disease, but simply a breaking up of nature. when he left his parish, which was the world. he had enlisted and inspired a great host of kindred spirits on both sides of the Atlantic who shared his purposes and who were still able to join in his deathbed cry, 'the best of all is, God is with us.
he had made all his preparations temporal and spiritual. his little bequests - they were very little ones, for he had saved absolutely nothing - were carefully considered. he gave '6 pounds to be divided among the 6 poor men named by the assistant who shall carry my body to the grave, for I particularly desire there may be no hearse, no coach, not escutcheon, (def - a shield or shield-like surface upon which a coat of arms is depicted.) no pomp, except the tears of those that loved me and are following me to Abraham's bosom. his wishes were, of course, attended to and the tears not wanting. but when the officiating clergyman said, 'Our dear father departed, instead of'brother', the multitude broke out into loud sobs.
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