father, and great grand father of John Wesley were ministers of the Church of England, of Puritan principles. John was the second of a family of nineteen children. His mother, Susannah Annesley, was a woman of remarkable intelligence and fervent piety, who devoted hereslf very much to the education, particularly to the religious education of her children. Her eldest son, Samuel, was a high churchman, and strongly disapproved of the peculiar course of his brothers John and Charles. John Wesley was a very diligent and successful student, and graduated at Oxford, in 1726, as M. A., and was elected fellow of Lincoln college, Oxford. In the same year he was appointed Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes. He became curate to his father at Wroote, a small living which Samuel Wesley held along with that of Epworth, and while serving here, he was advanced to priest's orders in 1728. He returned to Oxford, and with his younger brother, Charles, entered into those religious associations from which Methodism sprang. In 1735 John Wesley was induced to go out to Georgia, to preach to the Indians and colonists. His religious views at this time were strongly tinctured with asceticism. He attempted to establish a discipline in the colony, very different from that of the Church of England, and failed in the attempt. The difficulties of his position were increased by an affair in which he became involved with the daughter of the chief magistrate of Savannah, whom he wished to marry; but, on the advice of the Moravian bishop and elders, he withdrew from her, and she very soon marrying another, Wesley refused her admission to the communion, upon which her husband raised an action at law, and Wesley, finding Savannah no suitable place for him, returned to England. With religious zeal undiminished, he maintained an intimate connection with the Moravians in London. On May 24, 1738, he attended a meeting of a society in Aldersgate street; and when one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, he experienced such a change of religious feeling that he ever afterward regarded this as the time of his conversion. In 1739 he began the practice of open-air preaching. From this time the history of Wesley's life became very much the history of Methodism. In 1740 he separated himself from the Moravians, differing from them in important points of doctrine, and the same year the breach took place between Whitefield and him, which divided the Methodists into two sections Calvinistic and Arminian. In his evangelistic work, and in organizing the Methodist body, Wesley was indefatigable. He seldom traveled less than forty miles a day, usually on horseback, till near the close of his life, when he used a chaise. In 1752 he married a widow with four children, which proved an unhappy marriage, and a separation ensued. His health gradually declined during the last three years of his life, and after a short illness, he died in London, March 2, 1791, in the 88th year of his age. He was a voluminous writer. His preaching was clear and argumentative, not passioned like

Whitefield's; his countenance was mild and grave, and his manners agreeable, although he exercised a very imperial domination over the preachers of the Methodist body. He was a man of great benevolence, and gave all his living to the poor.

Whitefield.

Whitefield, George, one of the founders of Methodism, was born in the Bull Inn, at Gloucester, on December 16, 1714; he was educated at the grammar school of his native town. He was distinguished by his elocutionary display at the annual visitations. Subsequently he obtained admission as a servitor at Pembroke College, Oxford, in his 18th year. About three years earlier, John and Charles Wesley had laid, in the university of Oxford, the foundation of Methodism. It was not until Whitefield had been upward of a year at the university that he became associated with the Methodists. He at once made himself remarkable among them for his zeal in laboring, above his strength, among the sick and prisoners in the jail. His health gave way, and he returned home, where his native air soon restored him; after this he carried on at Gloucester the same pious and self-denying labors which he had begun at the university. The bishop of the diocese offered to admit him to orders, which was accepted, though Whitefield was only twenty-one. preached his first sermon in Gloucester cathedral, and the effect of it was remarkable. The vehemence and earnestness of his oratory deeply moved the audience, and five persons are said to have been driven mad with fear and excitement. Complaints were made to the bishop. He simply said that he hoped the madness would last to the following Sunday. During the next two years, Whitefield preached with similar results in various churches in England. He went to London, and his success was immediate, and much exceeded all of his previous efforts. The churches were filled many hours before the time of service. He visited America and returned in a few months, and was admitted to priest's orders. He soon went back to America, but not before a beginning had been made of his split with the English church, whose clergy he offended by preaching in the open air, whether he got permission from the parish clergyman or not, and by deviating from the liturgy of the church, whenever he thought best. But the remarkable and beneficial effects of his preaching on the rude miners and others who flocked to hear him, consoled him from clerical censure. His second visit to America occupied nearly two years. He returned to England in 1741. At this time both Wesley and Whitefield were disowned by the Established Church; and doctrinal differences led them to separate. Wesley believed and preached the doctrine of universal redemption. Whitefield was a rigid Calvinist. Each thought his belief of the utmost importance, and each excommunicated the other. Whitefield's supporters built him a large shed at

At

Moorfields, near Wesley's chapel, and his preaching gathered immense audiences around him. But he had no talent for organization; and as soon as he went away his supporters began to disperse. The countess of Huntingdon, a lady of wealth and of abilities, became a convert to his views, and appointed him her chaplain; she built and endowed chapels to maintain his Calvinistic doctrines. This was known as the Huntingdon connection. Whitefield made a missionary journey to Scotland in 1741. Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, inhabited by rude colliers, his preaching produced one of the most remarkable revivals of modern times; many thousands were stricken with concern about their souls, and violent physical manifestations followed-foaming at the mouth, bleeding at the nose, and convulsions. Some attributed this to divine influence, others to the devil. Whitefield on leaving Scotland went into Wales and married Mrs. James, a widow. His marriage, like that of Wesley, was not a happy one; and it is recorded that the death of his wife set his mind much at liberty. Whitefield made seven visits to America. The last time in 1769. He was ill at the end of the voyage, and died at Newbury, near Boston, on September 30, 1770.

Wishart.

Wishart, George, one of the early reformers of Scotland, is supposed to have been a native of Forfarshire. The exact date of his birth is unknown. In the beginning of the sixteenth century he taught a grammar school at Montrose, and made himself remarkable by introducing the study of Greek. He began also to preach the doctrines of the Reformation, and was obliged to flee into England. Here he preached the same doctrines. But in 1538 he was seized and threatened with death; he publicly recanted. Later he is found at Cambridge, advocating the reform movement, under the influence of Bilney and Latimer. He returned to Scotland in 1544, with the commissioners sent to negotiate a treaty with Henry VIII., and then he entered upon his special reforming mission, which terminated in his martyrdom. He possessed great power as a preacher, traveling from town to town, and county to county, making a great impression by his stirring words. His activity and influence were too prominent long to escape notice. After preaching a powerful sermon at Haddington, he was made a prisoner by the earl of Bothwell. He was conveyed to St. Andrews, and immediately put upon his trial before an ecclesiastical tribunal. Arran, the governor, refused to give his countenance to the proceedings; nevertheless he was condemned to be burned at the stake, and the sentence was carried out before the castle at St. Andrews on March 1, 1546. At the stake he said, "He who from yonder high place beholdeth us with such pride shall, within a few days, be in the same ignominy, but now he is seen proudly to rest

himself." This prophecy was fulfilled, for in a few days the cardinal Beaton was assassinated.

Wycliffe.

Wycliffe, John de, the greatest of all the reformers before the Reformation, was born 1324, near Richmond in Yorkshire, England. He studied at Oxford. About 1363 he took his degree and began to read lectures at Oxford, in which his anti-Romish views were first expounded. In 1374 he was presented to the parish of Leitterorworth, of which he remained priest until his death.

He

He was advanced to be one of the king's chaplains. Edward III. and his Parliament called upon him to answer the papacy regarding the exaction of certain tribute money. This he did at Oxford in an ingenious and powerful manner, and thus showed his antipathy to the pretentions of Rome. In 1374 he was sent by Parliament to confer with the papal legate at Bruges, concerning certain abuses of the papacy. Soon after his return to England, he styled the pope anti-Christ, the proud worldly priest of Rome, the most cursed of clippers and cut purses. In 1378, he was summoned to a convocation, to be examined for his opinions. obeyed the summons, attended by John of Gaunt and others. A great tumult ensued, the London citizens bursting into the chapel and frightening the synod of clergy who were ordered to stop the proceedings. The papal authority was then invoked against him, and Gregory VI. issued several bulls and three addresses to the archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops, one to the king, and one to the university of Oxford, commanding an inquest into the erroneous doctrines of the reformer. Wycliffe was again summoned before the prelates at Lambeth; favored circumstances enabled him to escape with an injunction to refrain from preaching the obnoxious doctrines. These proceedings only served to make Wycliffe a more thorough reformer. He now entered upon his great work of translating the Scriptures and circulating them among the common people. He had a great retinue of poor preachers who went from village to village bearing copies of parts of them. The middle class heard him gladly. A rupture with the papacy seemed to be inevitable. But the times were not ripe for this. Many who sympathized with him, were afraid of his views on transubstantiation. He was summoned to answer on this question at the Greyfriars, London, and later in a convocation in 1332. defended himself with great power. But his defence was unavailing. He was banished from Oxford. He died in 1384.

Zinzendorf.

He

Zinzendorf, Nicolaus Luchoig Count von, the founder of the existing sect Moravian brethren, was born at Dresden, May 26, 1700. His father, a state Saxon minister dying when Zinzendorf was a

child, he was educated by his grand mother, a learned and pious lady, the baroness von Gersdorf. He took part in devotional exercise while a mere child. In 1710 he went to Halle, where he spent six years under the special care of Francke, the philanthropist. Zinzendorf founded a religious society among his fellow pupils to which he gave the name, Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed." In 1716 he was sent to Wittenberg, where he adhered to his early religious impressions. Two years afterward he traveled through Holland and France, everywhere endeavoring to convert the distinguished persons whom he met to his own religious views. On his return to Dresden, he was appointed a member of the Saxon state council, and married the sister of the count Reuss von Ebersdorf. But political life was little to his mind, and he returned to his country-seat in upper Lucastia. While residing there he met Christian David, a member of the old sect of Moravian brethren, of whom some still remained in Moravia, professing the doctrines taught by John Huss. David described the persecutions to which the sect were exposed; and Zinzendorf invited him and his friends to settle on his estate. They accepted the proposal, and the colony received the name of "Herrnhut." Zinzendorf was very liberal to the settlers, and their success attracted much attention. In 1734 Zinzendorf went under a feigned name to Stralsand to pass an examination in theology, and was ordained a minisetr of the Lutheran church. In 1736 he was banished from Saxony, on a charge of introducing dangerous novelties in religion. He repaired to Holland, where he founded a Moravian colony, and afterward to Esthonia and Livonia, where he also founded colonies. In 1737, at the request of the king Frederick William I. of Prussia, he was ordained bishop of the Moravians. In the same year he went to London, where he was received with much consideration by Wesley. In 1741 he went to North America, accompanied by his daughter, and founded the Moravian colony at Bethlehem. The Herrnhuters, in the meantime, by their good conduct and industry, had won the respect of all classes in Saxony, and in 1747 Zinzendorf was allowed to return to Herrnhut. Having received authority by act of Parliament to establish Moravian settlements in the English colonies of America, he returned thither to do so. He finally settled at Hernhut; and his first wife being dead, he married Anne Nitschman, one of the earliest colonists from Moravia. He died on May 9, 1760. Thirty-two preachers from all parts of the globe accompanied the coffin to the grave. He was the author of more than 100 works in verse and prose. His hymns, used in worship by the Moravians, are objectionable on account of their pious indecency. The same may be said of his sermons, especially of those which refer to the Holy Ghost as a spiritual mother. His writings are often incoherent or mystical, but they abound with passages in which deep and original thought is expressed with great clearness and beauty.