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CHAPTER III

Mr. Wesley's labours until the first Methodist Confer ence in 1744.

AFTER his return from Georgia, Mr. Wesley was detained several weeks in London, by the trustees, and here he detailed the reasons which induced him so hastily to re-visit England.-The relation which he gave to the trustees, was so different from the flattering accounts of others, that they were highly displeased with him.

About this time he received a letter from a friend in Lincolnshire, intreating him to serve the church of a Mr. Hume, sometime before deceased, during its vacancy. The occasion of this letter, with all the circumstances connected with it, is very extraordinary.

When Mr. Samuel Wesley's Parsonage-house was burnt at Epworth, as formerly related, many of the neighbouring gentry, who held Mr. Wesley in very high esteem, opened their houses to him and his family. One gentleman received Mr. and Mrs. Wesley, another one of the children and thus the whole family was accommodated. Mr. John Wesley, who was then sıx years old only, was received into the house of Mr. Hume, a neighbouring Clergyman. There he continued for a year, till his father's house was rebuilt and confessed that he loved that family, while he resided among them, as much as he ever loved his own. Mr. Hume had four sons and one daughter. Three of the sons were educated at Oxford, and entered into holy orders: the other went into the Guinea-trade, and settled on the Coast of Africa.

Mr. Wesley having read the letter above-mentioned, inquired of one of his Lincolnshire friends, whether Mr. Hume was dead. "Have you not been informed of the calamities of that family," replied his friend? "I have not," said Mr. Wesley. "I will then," said he, "relate them to you."

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"About nine months ago Mr. Hume was riding out : and watering his horse at a large pond, the unruly beast plunged out of his depth; by which Mr. Hume was so wetted, that he caught a violent cold, which was followed by a fever that caused his death. Lord patron of Mr. Hume's living, was determined that it should remain in the family as long as possible; and therefore gave the eldest son a presentation of it. Mr. Hume, the father, had just rebuilt the parsonage-house before he died: the son took possession before it was dry, and the dampness of it occasioned his speedy death. The second son was then presented to the living; and he died also a few weeks after his induction. The third son, his brother dying suddenly, immediately left Oxford to receive the presentation. In his way he slept at the house of an old acquaintance of his father. The gentleman of the house had a beautiful daughter, to whom young Mr. Hame immediately became attached: he therefore, before he departed, begged permission to return, and make proposals; to which the father consented. Mr. Hume, after his induction to his living, returned according to his engagement, and in a few days the marriage was completed. But in six weeks after the nuptials the lady was brought to bed; and Mr. Hume soon after died with grief.

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Now, Sir," said the Lincolnshire gentleman, "You may have a living and a wife: for Lord

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has declared that if Miss Hume is married to a clergyman within six months from the death of her brother, the living shall be part of her fortune; and Miss Hume has

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consented with much apparent satisfaction, that you should be invited to supply the church." But Mr. Wesley was too much impressed with the thoughts of eternity, to pay any attention to this proposal.

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The conclusion must not be omitted. Mrs. Hume, soon after the death of her third son, received a letter from the only remaining one, informing her he was just about to sail from Africa to England with a fortune sufficient to make the whole family comfortable: and in a few days after, she received a letter from the captain of a swift-sailing vessel, who had been hailed by the ship in which her son sailed; by whom she was informed that her son had died on his passage of a disorder which then raged in the ship. Mrs. Hume, sinking under the weight of such a complication of misfortunes, soon died of a broken heart. Miss Hume, about a month after the death of her mother, was in company with a physician, who looking stedfastly at her observed, Madam, you take opium: I know it by your eyes; and I am afraid you have put it out of my power to recover you." She confessed that the misfortunes of the family had so entirely deprived her of rest, that she had taken laudanum, to obtain a little repose. The physician prescribed. In a fortnight she recovered her appetite, her colour, and in a good measure her health. The physician then advised her to take a table-spoonful of a julap he had ordered for her, whenever she found herself inclined to be sick. A few days after this she desired the servant to bring her a spoonful of the julap. The servant mistaking the bottle of laudanum for the julap, brought her a spoonful of the laudanum, which she drank; and immediately fell asleep to awake no

more.

When Mr. Wesley received information of the death of the last of the family, he recollected a remarkable observation made to him by his mother many years pre

vious. He had been commending to her in very strong terms Mr. Hume and his amiable family. "John," replied Mrs. Wesley. " depend upon it, that family will come to an untimely end." Mrs. Wesley was a woman so far from being given to censure, that Mr. Wesley asked with some surprise, " Madam, why do you speak so severely of so lovely a family?" "John," said she, "I will tell you why. I have observed in various instances in the course of my life, that where persons have grossly violated the fifth commandment, and afterwards have been brought to the fear of God, the Lord has reversed the promise, and punished them for their transgression with temporal death. Mr. Hume and his family lie under this censure. I remember the

time when his mother lived under his roof. He used her cruelly. He grudged every bit of meat she put into her mouth, and the whole family partook of his spirit. And, depend upon it, God will remember them for this."

Mr. Wesley now indulged himself in a social intercourse with his friends and relations, and became acquainted with Peter Bohler, Schulius Richter, and other Moravians who had lately arrived from Germany, and with whom he was much gratified. He then visited his brother at Oxford, reported to be in his last moments, but he found him recovered. Here he again. met Bohler, and by him, he was convinced of the want of that faith, by which alone we are saved-and in conformity with his advice, he now began to preach, "salvation by faith alone." Bohler's words to him were very curious; "preach faith till you have it; and then because you have it, you will preach faith." The first address in which he inculcated the necessity of that faith which the Gospel describes, was to a prisoner under the sentence of death.

He spent much of this spring in travelling with Mr. Kinchin, of Corpus Christi college-They visited Man

chester, Holms Chapel, Newcastle, and many other towns, frequently preaching and exhorting "in season and out of season"-in public and in private, in inns and in stables, and with different success-The novelty of their conduct produced a diversity of effects; some were astonished at the boldness of their reproofs and the energy of their exhortations, whilst others were grateful and desirous to be farther instructed.

In the beginning of April, he dismissed in part his use of the form of prayer. Mr. Kinchin and himself were visiting a prisoner in the Castle at Oxford, when this change commenced-having used the form, they prayed with him extempore- And on April 1st he resolved to use a form or not as might appear to him most suitable.

From this period he studied the scriptures, with much constancy and earnestness that he might ascertain what foundation there was in the scripture for the doctrine. upon which Bohler had so much insisted--and on the 22d of April he says, that he was convinced of the truth of instantaneous conversion, by the testimony of many living witnesses. May 1. They began to form themselves into a religious society, which met in Fetter-Lane. This has been called the first methodist society in London. Mr. Wesley distinguishes the origin of Methodism, into three distinct periods. "The first rise of Methodism, was in November 1729, when four of us met together at Oxford: the second was at Savannah, in April 1736, when twenty or thirty persons met at my house: the last was at London, on this day, when forty or fifty of us agreed to meet together every Wednesday evening, for free conversation, begun and ended with singing and prayer." Their rules were printed under the title of Orders of a Religious Society, meeting in Fetter-Lane; in obedience to the command of God by St. James, and by the advice of Peter Bohler.

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