tion with a friend, he once alluded, as expressing his own past and habitual experience, were in him finely realized: "Jesus, confirm my heart's desire, To work, and speak, and think for thee; And still stir up thy gift in me. Ready for all thy perfect will, My acts of faith, and love repeat, CHAPTER X. THE doctrines and principal branches of the discipline of the body being generally settled, Mr. Wesley desisted from publishing extracts from the minutes of the annual conferences from 1749 to 1765. In the minutes of the latter year we find for the first time a published list of the circuits, and of the preachers.* The circuits were then twenty-five in England, extending from Cornwall to Newcastle upon Tyne; in Scotland four; in Wales two; in Ireland eight; in all thirty-nine. The total number of the preachers, given up entirely to the work, and acting under Mr. Wesley's direction, had then risen to ninety-two. But it will be necessary to look back upon the labors of the two brothers during this interval. Instead, however, of tracing Mr. Wesley's journeys into various parts of the * In the manuscript copy of the first minutes before mentioned, lists of circuits occasionally appear, as in 1746: "How many circuits are there? Answer.--Seven. 1. London, including Surrey and Kent. 2. Bristol, including Somersetshire, Portland, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire. 3. Cornwall. 4. Evesham, including Shrewsbury, Leominster, Hereford, Stroud, and Wednesbury. 5. York, including Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire. 6. Newcastle. 7. Wales." kingdom in detail from his journals, which present one uniform and unwearied activity in his high calling, it will be sufficient to notice the principal incidents. Mr. Charles Wesley married in 1749, yet still continued his labors with but little abatement. He was in London at the time of the earthquake, and was preaching at the Foundery early in the morning when the second shock occurred. The entry in his journal presents him in a sublime attitude, and may be given as an instance of what may be truly called the majesty of faith: "March 8, 1750. This morning, a quarter after five, we had another shock of an earthquake, far more violent than that of February 8th. I was just repeating my text, when it shook the Foundery so violently, that we all expected it to fall on our heads. A great cry followed from the women and children. I immediately called out, 'Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth be moved, and the hills be carried into the midst of the sea; for the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.' He filled my heart with faith, and my mouth with words, shaking their souls as well as their bodies. The earth moved westward, then eastward, then westward again, through all London and Westminster. It was a strong and jarring motion, attended with a rumbling noise like that of thunder. Many houses were much shaken, and some chimneys thrown down, but without any farther hurt." (Journal.) The impression produced in London by this visitation is thus recorded in a letter from Mr. Briggs to Mr. John Wesley: "This great city has been, for some days past, under terrible apprehensions of another earthquake. Yesterday, thousands fled out of town, it having been confidently asserted by a dragoon, that he had a revelation that great part of London, and Westminster especially, would be destroyed by an earthquake on the 4th instant between twelve and one at night. The whole city was under direful apprehensions. Places of worship were crowded with frightened sinners, especially our two chapels, and the Tabernacle, where Mr. Whitefield preached. Several of the classes came to their leaders, and desired that they would spend the night with them in prayer; which was done, and God gave them a blessing. Indeed, all around was awful. Being not at all convinced of the prophet's mission, and having no call from any of my brethren, I went to bed at my usual time, believing I was safe in the hands of Christ; and likewise that, by doing so, I should be the more ready to rise to the preaching in the morning; which I did, praised be my kind Protector." In a postscript he adds, "Though crowds left the town on Wednesday night, yet crowds were left behind; multitudes of whom, for fear of being suddenly overwhelmed, left their houses, and repaired to the fields, and open places in the city. Tower Hill, Moorfields, but, above all, Hyde Park, were filled, the best part of the night, with men, women, and children, lamenting. Some, with stronger imaginations than others, mostly women, ran crying in the streets, An earthquake! an earthquake!' Such distress, perhaps, is not recorded to have happened before in this careless city. Mr. Whitefield preached at midnight in Hyde Park. Surely God will visit this city; it will be a time of mercy to some. O may I be found watching!" (Whitehead's Life.) So ready were these great preachers of the time to take advantage of every event by which they might lead men to God. One knows not which most to admire, Mr. Whitefield preaching at midnight in Hyde Park to a crowd of affrighted people, expecting the earth to swallow them up, or Mr. Charles Wesley, with the very ground reeling under him, calling out to the congregation, "Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth be moved, and the hills be carried into the midst of the sea; for the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge," and using this as his text. The detected immorality and expulsion of one of the preachers, James Wheatley,* led the brothers to determine upon instituting a more strict inquiry into the life and behavior of every preacher in connection with them. Mr. Charles Wesley undertook that office, as being, perhaps, more confident in his own discernment of character, and less influenced by affection to the preachers. The result was, however, highly creditable to them, for no irregularity of conduct was detected; but as the visitation was not conducted, to say the least of it, in the bland manner in which it would have been executed by Mr. John Wesley, who was indeed alone regarded as the father of the connection, it led, as might be expected, to bickerings. Many of the preachers did not come up to Mr. Charles Wesley's notions of attachment to the Church; some began to wish a little larger share in the government; and a few did not rise to his standard of ministerial abilities, although of this he judged only by report. From this time a stronger feeling of disunion between the preachers and him grew up, which ultimately led to his taking a much less active part in the affairs of the body, except to interfere occasionally with his advice, and, in still later years, now and then to censure the increasing irregularity of his brother's proceedings. The fact was, Mr. John Wesley was only carried forward * Mr. Wesley has been censured by some persons for sanctioning the publication of a pamphlet on the "Duties of Husbands and Wives," written, as they supposed, by this wretched man, and especially for doing this after the misconduct of the author had been brought to light. But the charge is without foundation. The pamphlet in question was not written by James Wheatley, the preacher, but by William Whateley, the Puritan minister of Banbury; a man of the most exemplary piety, and one of the best practical writers of his age, who died in 1639. The work from which the pamphlet was extracted is entitled, “A Bride-Bush,” and bears the date of 1619, which was at least a hundred years before Wheatley was born. by the same stream which had impelled both the brothers irretrievably far beyond the line prescribed to regular Churchmen; and Charles was chafing himself with the vain attempt to buffet back the tide, or at least to render it stationary. He saw, no doubt, during the visitation. which he had lately undertaken, a growing tendency to separation from the Church both among many of the preachers and the people, which, although it was the natural, nay, almost necessary, result of the circumstances in which they were placed, he somewhat uncandidly attributed to the ambition of the former; and, laying it down as a necessary qualification, that no preacher ought to be employed without giving some explicit pledge as to his purpose of adherence to the Church, he attempted to associate himself with his brother in the management, with equal power to call preachers into the work, and then to govern them. He appears laudably to have wished to improve their talents; but he proposed also greatly to restrict their number, and to subject them to stricter tests as to their attachment to the Establishment. Here began an important difference between the two brothers. Some impression was made upon the mind of Mr. John Wesley by his brother's letters written to him during his tour of inquisition, principally as they exaggerated the growing danger of separation from the Church; and upon Charles' return to London, John was persuaded, although "with difficulty," to sign an agreement, engaging that not preacher should be called into the work except by both of them conjointly, nor any readmitted but with mutual consent. The intention of Charles was evidently to obtain a controlling power over his brother's proceedings; but there was one great rule to which Mr. John Wesley was more steadily faithful. This was to carry on and extend that which he knew to be the work of God, without regarding probable future consequences of separation from the |