he might have some amusement and business, by assisting me in my cure during my illness.

"It was then, sir, I just received the favour of yours, and let him see it for his diversion; more especially, because John Lyndal and he had been fellow-parishioners and school-fellows at Wroot, and had no little kindness one for the other. I made no great reflection on the thing at first; but, soon after, I found he had thought often upon it, was very desirous to go to Georgia himself, and wrote the enclosed letter to me on the subject. As I knew not of any

person more proper for such an undertaking, I thought the least I could do was to send the letter to your honour, who would be so very proper a judge of the affair; and, if you approve, I shall not be wanting in my addresses to my Lord Bishop of London, or any other, since I expect to be in London myself at spring, to forward the matter, as far as it will go.

"As for his character, I shall take it upon myself to say, that he is a good scholar, a sound Christian, and a good liver. He has a very happy memory, especially for languages, and a judgment and intelligence not inferior. My eldest son at Tiverton has some knowledge of him, concerning whom I have writ to him since your last to me. My two others, his tutor at Lincoln, and my third of Christ Church, have been long and intimately acquainted with him; and I doubt not but they will give him, at least, as just a character as I have done.

"And here I shall drop the matter, till I have the honour of hearing again from you; and shall either drop it or prosecute it, as appears most proper to your maturer judgment; ever remaining, your honour's most sincere, and most obliged friend and serSAMUEL WESLEY."

vant,

These are remarkable and important letters, and doubtless served as links, in the chain of cause and effect, which led to the selection of John and Charles Wesley for the mission in Georgia. The missionary spirit was a passion in the Wesley family, when Christian missions to the heathen scarce existed. John Wesley, after being ejected from his church living, in 1662, longed to go as a missionary, first to Surinam, and afterwards to Maryland. Samuel Wesley, his son, when a young man of between thirty and forty years of age, formed a magnificent scheme to go as a Wesley Family.

missionary to India, China, and Abyssinia; and, in the last year of his life, most feelingly laments that he was not young enough to go to Georgia. His sons, John and Charles, now at Oxford, caught his spirit, and, within twelve months after the date of the last letter, actually went. John Whitelamb, his son-in-law, wished to go; but, for some unknown reason, was kept at home.

As already stated, Oglethorpe went to Georgia in 1733, with a number of released debtors, who were the first settlers in the colony. These were joined by a number of persecuted Protestants, who had been driven from Salzburg, a city of Bavaria, by the archbishop of the place. On October 14, 1735, six months after Samuel Wesley's death, Oglethorpe re-embarked for Georgia, with five hundred and seventy adventurers, among whom were one hundred and thirty Highlanders, and one hundred and seventy Germans, of whom a considerable number were Moravians.* The trustees of the colony requested John Wesley and some of his friends to accompany the emigrants. Wesley consulted his widowed mother. Her answer was: "Had I twenty sons, I should rejoice they were all so well employed, though I should never see them more." The thing was settled, and away Wesley went, his brother Charles, and their Oxford friends, Benjamin Ingham and Charles Delamotte, going with him.

Samuel Wesley strongly wished his son John to be his successor at Epworth; but John, four months before his father's death, decisively declined the proposal. He was resolved to remain at Oxford, because he imagined he could be holier at Oxford than he could be anywhere else. The rector died, and then his son changed his mind, and set out on the very mission upon which his father had set his heart, and to be engaged in which he would, if he had been ten years younger, have gladly relinquished Epworth Church. The following letter refers to John Wesley's final refusal of his father's proposition. It was written to Samuel Wesley, jun., four months previous to Mr Wesley's decease :—

"EPWORTH, Dec. 4, 1734.

"DEAR SON,-Having pretty many things to write to you, and those of no small moment; and being for the most part confined to my house by pain and weakness, so that I have not yet ventured to church on a Sunday, I have just now sat down to try if I can * Wesley Family, vol. ii. p. 175. Moore's Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 234.

reduce my thoughts into any tolerable order. Though I can write but few lines in a day, yet being under my own hand, they may not be the less acceptable to you.

2.

"I shall throw what I have a mind you shall know, under three heads-1. What most immediately concerns our own family. Dick Ellison, the wen of my family, and his poor insects that are sucking me to death. 3. J. Whitelamb;-and, perhaps, in a postscript, a little of my own personal affairs, and of the poor.

"1. Of our family. Your brother John has at last writ me, that it is now his unalterable resolution not to accept of Epworth living, if he could have it ;' and the reason he gives for it in these words:The question is not whether I could do more good to others there or here, but whether I could do more good to myself; seeing wherever I can be most holy myself, there, I am assured, I can most promote holiness in others. But I am equally assured there is no place under heaven so fit for my improvement as Oxford. Therefore,' &c.

"Thus stands his argument. Though I am no more fond of the gripping and wrangling distemper than I am of Mr Harper's* boluses and clysters, (for age would again have rest,) I sat myself down to try if I could unravel his sophisms, and hardly one of his assertions appeared to me to be universally true. I think the main of my answer was, that he seemed to mistake the end of academical studies, which were chiefly preparatory, in order to qualify men to instruct others.

"He thinks there is no place so fit for his improvement as Oxford. As to many sorts of useful knowledge, it may be nearly true; but surely there need be a knowledge, too, of men and things (which has not been thought the most attainable in a cloister) as well as of books, or else we shall find ourselves of much less use in the world.

"But the best and greatest improvement is in solid piety and religion, which (in Oxford) is handy to be got, or promoted, by being hung up in Socrates' basket. But allowing that austerity and mortification may either be a means of promoting holiness, or, in some degree, a part of it, why may not a man exercise these in his own house as strictly as in any college, in any university in Europe, and, perhaps, with less censure and observation? Neither can I understand the meaning or drift of being thus ever learning, • His son-in-law, who was a doctor at Epworth.

and never coming to a due proficiency in the knowledge and practice of the truth, so as to be able commendably to instruct others in it.

"Thus far I have written with my own hand, both to you and your brother, for many days together; but I am now so heartily tired that I must, contrary to my resolution, get my son Whitelamb to transcribe and finish it. I have done what I could, with such a shattered head and body, to satisfy the scruples which your brother has raised against my proposal, from conscience and duty; but if your way of thinking be the same with mine, especially after you have read and weighed what follows, you will be able to convince him in a much clearer and stronger manner.

"The remaining considerations I offered to him were for the most part such as follow:-I urged, among other things, the great precariousness of my own health, and the sensible decay of my strength, so that he would hardly know me if he saw me now; the deplorable state in which I should leave your mother and the family, and the loss of near forty years' honest labour in this place, where I could expect no other, but that the field which I have been so long sowing with good seed, and the vineyard, which I have planted with no ignoble vine, must be soon rooted up, and the fences of it broken down,-for I am morally satisfied, if your brothers both slight it, Mr P will be my successor.

"I hinted at one thing, which I mentioned in my letter to your brother, whereon I depend more than upon all my own simple reasoning; and that is, earnest prayer to Him who smiles at the strongest resolutions of mortals, and can, in a moment, change or demolish them; who alone can bend the inflexible sinew, and order the irregular wills of us simple men to His own glory, and to our happiness. While the anchor holds, I despair of nothing, but firmly believe that He who is best will do what is best, whether we earnestly will it or will it not. There I rest the whole matter, and leave it with Him, to whom I have committed all my concerns, without exception and without reserve, for soul and body, estate and family, time and eternity. *

Samuel Wesley, jun., wrote to his brother John the day after he received this letter from his father; and a sharp correspondence was carried on between the two brothers, until the 4th of March 1735, which was within two months of their father's death. John, however, at that time, remained as firmly convinced as ever that he could serve God and his Church better at Oxford than he could if he removed to Epworth.-MOORE's Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 231.

"2. As to the second part of my letter concerning R. Ellison,* I have charity crammed down my throat every day, and sometimes his company at meals, which you will believe as pleasant to me as all my physic. But this is beyond the reach of all my little prudence, and therefore I find I must leave it as I have done, in some good measure before, to Him who orders all things.

"3. The third part of my letter is in relation to my son Whitelamb, and is of almost as great concern as the former, and on some accounts perhaps greater. You will find the whole affair contained in a letter I lately sent to Mr Oglethorpe, and in my son Whitelamb's to myself. The letters are so full, that they have exhausted what we had to say on that subject; and nothing at present need or can be added. I desire you therefore to weigh the whole with the utmost impartiality; and, if you are of the same mind with myself and your mother, who entirely approves of the design, that you would yourself write to Mr Oglethorpe, as I promised you would, and send him your thoughts, and use your good offices about it.

"And now, as to my minute affairs, I doubt not but you will, as you gave me hopes when you went into Devon, improve your interest among the gentlemen, your friends, and get me some more subscribers, as likewise an account whether there be any prospect yet remaining of obtaining any favour from the Duke of Newcastle, in relation to the affair-Yours,

"SAMUEL WESLEY."S

The last letter we shall introduce is a review of his life, and therefore an appropriate conclusion of the present chapter.

It has been already mentioned that Mr Wesley had a brother, named Matthew, who practised as a physician in London. There does not appear to have been much intimacy between the two brothers; but, after the fire at Epworth in 1709, Matthew took

This was the rich man who married Sukey Wesley, and whom Mrs Wesley spoke of as being little inferior to the apostate angels in wickedness.

This again shows the high importance which Samuel Wesley attached to the mission in Georgia; and is proof sufficient that had he been alive, the going of his two sons, John and Charles to that colony, would have had his hearty approval.

The Duke of Newcastle was at this time Secretary of State, and had probably been requested to obtain the consent of Queen Caroline to allow Mr Wesley to dedicate to her his "Dissertations on the Book of Job."

Wesley Family.