pally ordained by the authority of the Church of England. At first Mr. Wesley appears to have been opposed to the preaching of laymen, but in this as in many other respects his opposition was overcome by the seeming indications of the Providence of God. While preparing to leave London for a time he requested Mr. Thomas Maxfield, a young man of respectable talents, to pray with and advise the Society in his absence. After having exercised his gifts several weeks, according to the request of Mr. Wesley, he at length thought it to be his duty to expound a portion of Scripture, and did so much to the satisfaction and edification of the Society; but when Mr. Wesley heard at a distance of Mr. Maxfield's attempts to preach he hurried back to London with all speed to put a stop to what he considered an outrage upon order and propriety. Before, however, he approached Maxfield for the purpose of silencing him, Mr. Wesley's mother interfered by saying, “John, take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are." Mr. Wesley hesitated, waited until he had himself heard Maxfield preach, witnessed the effects produced by such preaching, and concluded, indeed, that if not in the order of the Church of England that unordained men should preach the gospel, it was certainly in accordance with the will of heaven. From this period laypreachers began to multiply, and it is owing to the labors of those men that the stone which first was set in motion by the Wesleys, has rolled with increasing dimensions and velocity throughout England, and other parts of the earth.

SECTION IV.

We have stated in the previous sections, that the Messrs. Wesley were the subjects of reproach and persecution, and the same is true of many of those who adopted their views and became members of their Societies. It may not be uninterest

ing or unprofitable to the reader, to give a few instances of bitter hostility on the part of clergymen and others, to the early Methodists, which facts we glean principally from Wesley's Journal.

While Mr. Wesley was on one occasion preaching in Bath, the notorious Beau Nash, the prince of fashion and dissipation, approached the preacher and inquired by what authority he said those things? Mr. Wesley at once replied: "By the authority of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the (now) Archbishop of Canterbury when he laid his hands upon me and said, 'Take thou authority to preach the gospel." Nash said to him, "This is contrary to act of Parliament, this is a conventicle." Wesley replied, "Sir, the conventicles mentioned in that act are seditious meetings; but this is not such, here is no shadow of sedition; therefore it is not contrary to that act." Nash replied, "I say it is; and beside, your preaching frightens people out of their wits." "Sir, did you ever hear me preach ?” "How then can you judge of what you never heard?” "Sir, by common report." "Common report, Sir, is not enough. Give me leave, Sir, to ask, is not your name Nash?" “My name is Nash.” 'Sir, I dare not judge of you by common report, I think it is not enough to judge by." After pausing awhile, Nash recovered himself, and said, “I desire to know what these people come here for:" on which an old lady replied, "Sir, leave him to me; let an old woman answer him: you, Mr. Nash, take care of your body; we take care of our souls, and for the food of our souls we come here." Nash, being thus confounded by the old lady, walked off without adding another word.

"No."

At a certain time, Mr. Charles Wesley visited Gloucester in company with Thomas Maxfield, and repaired to a place called Bengeworth for the purpose of seeing Mr. Benjamin Seward, an old friend and fellow-Christian. They however found that Mr. S. had been for some time sick of a fever, and that during his sickness, his relations, who were violent opposers of the

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truth, had intercepted all his letters and called his fever madness, and had placed servants over him to prevent any Methodist from coming near him. Instead of being permitted to see, and converse with his friends, Mr. Henry Seward, a brother of the sick man, gave Mr. Wesley plenty of abuse, by calling him a scoundrel, rascal, pickpocket, &c. Mr. Wesley made but little reply, but gave notice that on the next day he would preach near Mr. Seward's house-the usual place of preaching. Mr. H. Seward forbade his preaching near his brother's premises, and threatened his arrest if he did so, and gave him notice, that four constables were engaged to effect the arrest. At the appointed time, Mr. Wesley proceeded toward the place of appointment, but was met by the Mayor's officer, who requested Mr. Wesley to accompany him to the Mayor's office. Mr. Wesley told the functionary that he reverenced the Mayor, on account of his office, but that he "must first wait on the Lord, and then on the Mayor." As he proceeded toward the place of meeting, he was met by Mr. Seward, who threatened and reviled him in an outrageous manner. The only reply made by Mr. Wesley, consisted in singing the well-known lines,

"Shall I for fear of feeble man,

The Spirit's course in me restrain?" &c.,

but this, instead of quieting Mr. S. only served to make him more furious, and calling some vile fellows to his aid, they laid hold on Mr. Wesley and led him out of the corporation. As soon as his captors let go their hold, Mr. Wesley again commenced singing, and to the hundreds who followed as spectators of the scene, he preached with great liberty and power, from the words: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" After sermon, he went to the Mayor's office, where he also met a clergyman who was much incensed against him, and who found fault with the writings and proceedings of the Wesleys and Whitfield. Mr. Wesley told him that if he was a carnal, worldly-minded clergyman, he would leave with him the sen

tence of Chrysostom, "Hell is paved with the skulls of Christian priests." After some apology by the Mayor for the violence used, Mr. Wesley left the office, preferring not to enter any complaint against those who had maltreated him.

Shortly after this transaction, Mr. Charles Wesley being in Bristol, went to Temple church and listened to a sermon wherein the preacher strongly recommended religion as the best way to raise a fortune. Perceiving Mr. Wesley in the congregation, he, after sermon, caused the clerk to make proclamation that none should remain to the sacrament, who did not belong to that parish. Mr. W. while wondering at the strange procedure which drove scores of worthy persons from the church, did not suspect that the proclamation was made for his special benefit; but he was quickly informed of the fact by the clerk, who went to him and respectfully told him that Mr. B. the officiating clergyman, bade him go away, for he would not give. him the sacrament. Mr. W. thinking there must be some mistake, went to the vestry door and quietly asked admission. "Are you of this parish?" inquired the minister. "Sir, you see that I am a clergyman," replied Mr. Wesley; on which, the former, dropping his pretence of not knowing him, boldly charged him with rebellion in expounding the Scriptures without authority, and in express language informed him that he repelled him from the sacrament. Mr. W. in reply, cited him to answer for such conduct before Jesus Christ in the day of judgment. This enraged the already angry minister, who called to certain constables who were present, "Here, take away this man." Mr. W. however, saved them the trouble of taking him away, by quietly leaving the Good Shepherd and his flock to themselves.

In this same city of Bristol, Mr. John Wesley was frequently assailed by mobs, who attempted not only to disturb his preaching, but injure his person. On one occasion, while expounding the former part of the twenty-third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, "not only the courts and the alleys, but

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all the street upward and downward, was filled with people shouting, cursing, and swearing, and ready to swallow the ground with fierceness and rage." After much effort on the part of the Mayor, and chief constable, the ringleaders were arrested and brought before the court of Quarter Sessions, and receiving some slight punishment, were liberated. The decision. of the Mayor prevented the recurrence of any such disgraceful proceedings in that city.

In London also, the Methodists were much exposed to persecution and the fury of an enraged and beastly population. They were frequently pelted with showers of stones, and an attempt was once made to unroof the Foundry Chapel while the congregation were assembled for worship. These things were done openly, the ignorant mob supposing that there was no law against abusing or even killing the Methodists. These London riots were, however, shortly after discontinued, by the influence of the reigning king, George III., who, in conversation with a Quaker gentleman, who had previously resided in Oxford, and who was well acquainted with the Messrs. Wesley, in answer to a question of the king, whether he knew the Wesleys who were making such a noise in the nation, replied, “I know them well, king George, and thou mayest be assured that thou hast not two better men in thy kingdom, nor men that love thee better, than John and Charles Wesley." After this conversation, the Justices of the Peace in and around London received "orders from above," to do the Methodists justice, whenever the latter should apply for a redress of grievances. Subsequently, a few arrests were made, and slight punishments inflicted, which served to put an end to violent persecution in London.

But while the liberty of worshipping God was thus being secured to the Methodists in Bristol and London, in other parts of England the storm of persecution raged with unmitigated fury. In his journal, under date of March 19, 1742, John Wesley says: "I rode once more to Pensford, at the earnest