Epworth never saw before. I stood near the east end of the church upon my father's tombstone, and cried, The kingdom of heaven is not in meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."" John Wesley preaching on his father's grave presents an almost unequalled subject for the pencil that would portray the early scenes of the rising denomination. The time, the place, the people, kindled his ardent enthusiasm to the utmost. Upon that hallowed spot he was inspired, as Southey says, " like the Greek tragedian, who, when he performed Electra, brought into the theatre the urn containing the ashes of his own daughter." The most affectionate, the holiest, the profoundest feelings of his nature were touched. "Seven successive evenings he preached upon that tombstone," with a power and effect nowhere ever exceeded.

But we return to the order of the narrative. Kingswood became a very prominent and important theatre of the labors of Wesley, and the scene of certain exhibitions which it is much easier to describe than fully to explain. We refer to those convulsions, and agonies, and paroxysms which attended the preaching of Wesley, and unfortunately were not exhibited here alone. Men were suddenly struck down to the earth as if dead; they were thrown into violent fits; they were attacked with pain so excessive that they could not help crying out in agony; they were seized with trembling and sunk down powerless. Wesley had seen fits of epilepsy and hysteria, but these were unlike, and his ready faith ascribed them to the power of the devil,* and sometimes to the miraculous agency of the Most High. They did not come upon the followers of Wesley alone. A Quaker who was present, and inveighed against the dissimulation of those affected, was himself seized, even while biting his lips and knitting his brows, and fell as if struck by lightning.' A stranger passing by stopped to listen to the preaching, and suddenly felt himself grasped by the unknown power and fell prostrate. An honest weaver, 'zealous for the church,' and against dissenters, went about to convince his acquaintance that it was all a delusion of the devil,' but as he was reading a sermon he changed color, fell from his chair, and screamed so terribly that the neighbors were alarmed and ran into the house ;' ' his breast

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*In this he was not altogether peculiar. We find the same opinion suggested by Ralph Erskine, of Scotland.

heaved as in the pangs of death, and great drops of sweat trickled down his face.' These things were not the result of dishonesty in the sufferers. They were no doubt in part owing to the amazing power of the speaker over his audience, many of whom regarded him, from his commanding attitude, his imposing appearance, and his awful message, like an inhabitant of another world. A part of the effect may be ascribed to the erroneous doctrine which led the hearers to expect some visible token or some sensible effect, as a sign of their conviction and conversion. A part may be ascribed to the power of enthusiasm, of fear and sympathy, and general nervous excitement; and a part, no doubt-though a small part-to a desire of attracting the notice of the great preacher, and even to deception Wesley's frank and generous nature allowed him to be deceived by his friends much more readily than by his enemies. Still, some things we may suspect to remain unexplained, and destined to illustrate a chapter in physiology or psychology, not yet fully written. The personal influence of the preacher is exhibited by the undoubted facts that these appearances showed themselves under Wesley much sooner than under Whitefield; that Wesley did not discourage them, while Whitefield did; and that under the later preaching of Wesley, when he had, to a .considerable degree, changed his opinion of them as indications of a spiritual power, they diminished very much, if they did not entirely cease.

Wesley's enthusiasm was now at its height, and not as yet tempered by experience. The scenes which he was passing through were so strange and exciting, that he did not always stop to examine the spirits, whether or not they were of God.' That the sick were healed, that devils were cast out, that the lunatics were brought to their right mind, when he stretched out his hands over them in prayer, he does not seem to have doubted. His journal is filled with examples of cures wrought upon himself, upon his friends, upon his horse even, in answer to his petitions. Almost every day witnessed some surprising intervention of Divine Providence for his safety or his happiness, and the most remarkable of these supernatural events are related with a simplicity, and sometimes quaintness, worthy of good old Isaak Walton, or George Herbert. We are not careful to pick out the little flaws in the character of such a man, but it must be confessed, his credulity is no inconsiderable one. We have no sympathy with the harsh vituperation of Warburton

however vigorous and witty, but there were some things which provoked it. We are very far from that cold, mechanical philosophy which removes God from all concern with the world, and sees in all events only the agency of second causes, but Wesley was apt to see a special providence in almost every wind that blew, or drop of rain that fell. We do consider a believing spirit,' far, very far better than a skeptical spirit, but Wesley believed when the evidence was chiefly his feelings. We condemn this enthusiasm and credulity as wild and mischievous-perhaps in after life he regarded them somewhat in the same light-but we may question whether they were not needful to him, absolutely essential for accomplishing the work he had in hand. He never could have labored as he did, to effect an earthborn or selfish project. Nothing but a divine work which should never come to an end, till heaven and earth pass away,' and a belief in the favor of the Most High daily communicated to him, would have urged him, in the absence of all worldly honor and emolument, to his long, laborious and self-denying service. A calm philosophy, carefully analyzing the mysteries of truth and falsehood, exactly adjusting the righteous balance, whatever great good it may accomplish, does not impel men to such courses. Zeal has its work to do in the renovation of the world as truly as prudence.

Wesley was far too vehement to plod along in the old path. His sympathies might cling to the past, but his mind rushed on to some new order of things in the future. He deceived himself when he thought or said otherwise. His determination was now made up for the course of his life, and occasional extravagances, even when he felt them, would not deter him from what on the whole seemed a great and necessary work. He had suffered too much and reflected too deeply, not to have opinions of his own, which the opposition of clergymen and the authority of bishops could not overthrow, and he was too active to allow those opinions to become a dead letter in the statutebook of his soul. No family confined him by domestic wants and responsibilities; all his time was cheerfully devoted to the duties of his weighty calling. Societies were everywhere formed, but as yet he meditated no separation from the established church. He only urged his followers to live like immortal beings, to be faithful servants of the Most High God. He asked no man for his creed, demanded no subscription to articles, no forsaking of a former mode of worship. "I am sick of

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opinions," he said some time afterward," give me solid and substantial religion: give me an humble and gentle lover of God and man: a man full of mercy and good faith, without partiality and without hypocrisy a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of hope and the labor of love. Let my soul be with these Christians, wheresoever they are, and whatsoever opinion they are of. We may die without the knowledge of many truths, and yet be carried to Abraham's bosom; but if we die without love, what will knowledge avail? Just as much as it avails the devil and his angels!" No one could accuse him of idleness. He built chapels, holding the right to them vested, not in trustees, but in himself. He appointed, or as he said, tolerated lay preachers, not to administer the ordinances but to preach the word. To this he came reluctantly, but he could not help it. The spirit which he had raised he could not allay, but only guide, and the great crowd which he sent out looked up to him for counsel as to a father. He demanded in them first of all, zeal. This covered a multitude of faults, and if it cooled, or Wesley became for other reasons dissatisfied with his preachers, he found another service for them, or they dropped back noiselessly to the common herd. Thus he had the great advantage of easily getting rid of the troublesome or weary spirits. He sought to improve the singing of his congregations, and in this, his brother Charles, with the beautiful melodies of his hymns, rendered him the greatest assistance. Sternhold and Hopkins were banished. Their famous (or infamous) compositions were a part of the service of the establishment, for which he retained not a particle of lingering_attachment. He fitted up a large building in Moorfields, London, which had been used during the civil wars as a foundry for cannon, and henceforth the Foundry became the centre of the meetings in town. In the mean time the 'doctrine and discipline spread through every county from Cornwall to Newcastle upon Tyne, and extended into Wales, Scotland and Ireland, so that in the year 1765, there were thirty-nine circuits in these countries.

It must not, however, be supposed that "all went merry as a marriage bell." Many were the perplexities, and bitter and dangerous sometimes the persecutions with which they met. All sorts of calumnies were heaped upon the head of Wesley and his associates. He was charged with being a Papist, a Jesuit, a follower of the Pretender. He was assailed by mobs who used freely the weapons best suited to them, stones and dirt,

while he replied with weapons most familiar to him, expostulation and argument. Sometimes one prevailed and sometimes the other. At one time he was pelted from the town, bruised, wounded, and half dead. At another, his mild manner, his dignified and fearless address awed and delighted even his rude assailants. The magistrates themslves encouraged the mob now by their pusillanimity, and again, through worse motives, by assurances of forbearance. The congregations fared almost as hard as the preachers. They were stoned, and thrown into ponds, and rolled in the mud. Women and children were exposed to the brutalities of an ignorant populace. They sometimes received indignities where they might have expected kindness. Dissenters even--themselves under disabilities for conscience' sake-joined with virulent churchmen to oppress the rising community. Dr. Doddridge was subjected to severe criticism and unworthy suspicions from his familiarity with Whitefield.

Notwithstanding all, Wesley pursued his way without hesitation. The history of his itinerancy is replete with scenes of romantic and fearful interest; full too of marked and strange effects of his preaching and that of his followers. He was thrown into contact with men of all classes, the high and the low, the learned and the ignorant, and always showed his ability and self-possession. We can give but a very brief account of a few circumstances among a thousand, which show his own power, and illustrate the force of truth upon minds excited to feel it. He was attacked at Bath by Beau Nash; but the king of the gay watering place found it one thing to direct festivities, and quite another to interfere with men engaged in the most solemn business which mortals can attend to; one thing to decide matters of honor and etiquette, and a far different thing to control the liberty of conscience and the laws of God. "By what authority are you preaching?" said Nash to Wesley. By that of Jesus Christ," replied the priest, than whom no one ever better knew his position; "by that of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the present archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid his hands upon me and said, 'Take thou authority to preach the gospel."" "What do these people come here for," said Nash.

Let an old woman answer him," cried one of the congregation. " 'You, Mr. Nash, take care of your body, we take care of our souls, and for the food of our souls we come here." The master of ceremonies had nothing more to say.