prayed, and went forth in the name of Jesus Christ. I found near a thousand helpless sinners waiting for the word in Moorfields. I invited them in my Master's words, as well as name, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' The Lord was with me, even me, the meanest of his messengers, according to his promise. At St. Paul's, the psalms, lessons, &c., for the day, put new life into me; and so did the sacrament. My load was gone, and all my doubts and scruples. God shone on my path, and I knew this was his will concerning me. I walked to Kennington-common, and cried to multitudes upon multitudes, 'Repent ye, and believe the Gospel.' The Lord was my strength, and my mouth, and my wisdom. O that all would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness!" A few weeks afterwards he preached to about ten thousand people in Moorfields; and for several years he followed, with equal steps, both his brother. and Mr. Whitefield, in laborious zeal and public usefulness.

The Wesleys were led to adopt this very unusual mode of proceeding through the force of circumstances, and a strong sense of duty; and not in consequence of any plan which they had previously conceived. When Mr. John Wesley returned from Georgia, he says, "I was in haste to retire to Oxford, and bury myself in my beloved obscurity; but I was detained in London, week after week, by the Trustees for the colony of Georgia. In the mean time I was continually importuned to preach in one and another church; and that not only morning, afternoon, and night, on Sunday, but on weekdays also. As I was lately come from a far country, vast multitudes flocked together, but, in a short time, partly because of those unwieldy crowds, partly

because of my unfashionable doctrine, I was excluded from one and another church, and, at length, shut out of all! Not daring to be silent, after a short struggle between honour and conscience, I made a virtue of necessity, and preached in the middle of Moorfields. Here were thousands upon thousands, abundantly more than any church could contain; and numbers among them who never went to any church or place of public worship at all. More and more of them were cut to the heart, and came to me all in tears, inquiring, with the utmost eagerness, what they must do to be saved.” *

These extraordinary efforts were severely censured by many persons, as disorderly and irregular: but they were clearly justified by Scripture precedent, our blessed Lord and his Apostles frequently preaching in the open air as well as in the Jewish temple and synagogues. They were also justified by the necessity of the case: for it was only in this manner that the masses of ignorant and wicked people, with which England at that time abounded, could be effectually reached. They never attended any place of worship whatever; so that unless they had been followed to their haunts of ungodliness and dissipation, they must have perished without knowledge and without hope. The spiritual and moral benefit arising from field-preaching was incalculable; so that Mr. Wesley said, "It were better for me to die, than not to preach the Gospel; yea, and in the fields, either where I may not preach in the church, or where the church will not contain the congregation." + When he had been accustomed thus to preach in London for more than twenty years, he says, "A vast majority of the immense congre† Ibid. vol. xii. p. 79.

* Works, vol. vii. pp. 422, 423.

gation in Moorfields were deeply serious. One such hour might convince any impartial man of the expediency of field-preaching. What building, except St. Paul's church, would contain such a congregation? And if it would, what human voice could have reached them there? By repeated observations I find I can command thrice the number in the open air, that I can under a roof. And who can say the time for field-preaching is over, while, 1. Greater numbers than ever attend: 2. The converting as well as the convincing power of God is eminently present with them?"*

The self-denial of the men who thus went forth into the highways and hedges, that they might instruct the ignorant and reclaim the lost, is very obvious; especially when it is recollected that their talents and education were of the first order, and such as qualified them to occupy a place in the highest society, as well as to excel in every branch of polite learning. Mr. Wesley thus forcibly expresses himself in his "Earnest Appeal: "-" Suppose fieldpreaching to be ever so expedient, or even necessary; yet who will contest with us for this province ? May we not enjoy this quiet and unmolested? unmolested, I mean, by any competitors. For who is there among you, brethren, that is willing (examine your own hearts) even to save souls from death at this price? Would not you let a thousand souls perish rather than you would be the instrument of rescuing them thus? I do not speak now with regard to conscience, but to the inconveniences that must accompany it. Can you sustain them, if you would? Can you bear the summer sun to beat upon your naked head? Can you suffer the wintry rain * Works, vol. ii. p. 515.

or wind from whatever quarter it blows? Are you able to stand in the open air, without any covering or defence, when God casteth abroad his snow like wool, or scattereth his hoar-frost like ashes? And yet these are some of the smallest inconveniences which accompany field-preaching. Far beyond all these are the contradiction of sinners, the scoffs both of the great vulgar and the small; contempt and reproach of every kind; often more than verbal affronts, stupid, brutal violence; sometimes to the hazard of health, or limbs, or life. Brethren, do you envy us this honour? What, I pray, would buy you to be a field-preacher? Or what, think you, could induce any man of common sense to continue therein one year, unless he had a full conviction in himself that it was the will of God concerning him?

"Upon this conviction it is that we now do, for the good of souls, what you cannot, will not, dare not do. And we desire not that you should; but this one thing we may reasonably desire of you : Do not increase the difficulties which are already so great, that, without the mighty power of God, we must sink under them. Do not assist in trampling down a little handful of men who for the present stand in the gap between ten thousand poor wretches and destruction, till you find some others to take their place."

THE FORMATION OF SOCIETIES.

ONE unavoidable effect of the powerful preaching of the Wesleys was the formation of religious societies. Many of the people, being deeply impressed with the truth which they heard, became alarmed * Works, vol. viii. pp. 230, 231.

for the consequences of their sin, and desired further instruction in the way of salvation; and those who had been renewed in the spirit of their minds longed for those spiritual helps which Christian fellowship supplies. Hence such as were awakened to a right perception of divine things were, at their own request, united together, for their mutual comfort and edification.

The time at which the first of the United Societies was formed is marked by Mr. Wesley with sufficient exactness. The following is his own account :— "In the latter end of the year 1739, eight or ten persons came to me in London, who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption. They desired (as did one or two more the next day) that I would spend some time with them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to come, which they saw continually hanging over their heads. That we might have more time for this great work, I appointed a day when they might all come together, which from thenceforward they did every week, namely, on Thursday, in the evening. To these, and as many more as desired to join with them, (for their number increased daily,) gave those advices, from time to time, which I judged most needful for them; and we always concluded our meeting with prayer suited to their several necessities.

I

*

"This was the rise of the United Society, first in London, and then in other places. Such a society is no other than a company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to

• "Twelve came the first Thursday night; forty, the next; soon after a hundred."-Wesley's Works, vol. vii. p. 207.

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