Dalkeith preached against him, affirming that, if he died in his present sentiments, he would be damned; and the fanatic declared that he would stake his own salvation upon it. It was well for him that these people were not armed with temporal authority. "The Seceders," says Wesley, "who have fallen in my way, are more uncharitable than the Papists themselves. I never yet met a Papist who avowed the principle of murdering heretics. But a seceding minister being asked, ' Would not you, if it was in your power, cut the throats of all the Methodists?' replied directly, Why did not Samuel hew Agag in pieces before the Lord?' I have not yet met a Papist in this kingdom who would tell me to my face, all but themselves must be damned; but I have seen Seceders enough who make no scruple to affirm, none but themselves could be saved. And this is the natural consequence of their doctrine; for, as they hold that we are saved by faith alone, and that faith is the holding such and such opinions, it follows, all who do not hold those opinions have no faith, and therefore cannot be saved." Even Whitefield, predestinarian as he was, was regarded as an abomination by the Seceders: how, then, was it possible that they should tolerate Wesley, who taught that redemption was offered to all mankind? A Methodist one day comforted a poor woman, whose child appeared to be dying, by assuring her that, for an infant, death would only be the exchange of this miserable life for a happy eternity; and the Seceder, to whose flock she belonged, was so shocked at this doctrine, that the deep-died Calvinist devoted the next Sabbath to the task of convincing his people, that the souls of all non-elect infants were doomed to certain and inevitable damnation.

But it was Wesley's fortune to meet with an obstacle in Scotland more fatal to Methodism than the fiercest opposition would have been. Had his followers been more generally opposed, they would have multiplied faster opposition would have inflamed their zeal ; it was neglected, and died away. From time to time he complains in his Journal of the cold insensibility of the people. "O what a difference is there between the living stones," he says, speaking of the Northumbrians," and the dead unfeeling multitudes in Scotland. At Dundee," he observes, "I admire the people; so decent, so serious, and so perfectly unconcerned!" "At Glasgow I preached on the Old Green to a people, the greatest part of whom hear much, know every thing, and feel nothing." They had been startled by the thunder and lightning of Whitefield's oratory; but they were as unmoved by the soft persuasive rhetoric of Wesley, as by one of their own Scotch mists.

Wesley endeavoured to account for this mortifying failure, and to discover" what could be the reason why the hand of the Lord (who does nothing without a cause) was almost entirely stayed in Scot land." He imputed it to the unwillingness of those, who were otherwise favourably inclined, to admit the preaching of illiterate men; and to the rude bitterness and bigotry of those who regarded an Arminian as an Infidel, and the church of England as bad as the church of Rome. The Scotch bigots, he said, were beyond all others. He answered, before a large congregation at Dundee, most the objections which had been made to him. He was a member

of the church of England, he said, but he loved good men of every church. He always used a short private prayer when he attended the public service of God: why did not they do the same? was it not according to the bible? He stood whenever he was singing the praises of God in public; were there not plain precedents for this in Scripture? he always knelt before the Lord, when he prayed in public; and generally, in public, he used the Lord's Prayer, because Christ has taught us, when we pray, to say, Our Father, which art in heaven. But it was not by such frivolous objections as these that the success of Methodism in Scotland was impeded. The real cause of its failure was, that it was not wanted-that there was no place for it the discipline of the kirk was not relaxed, the clergy possessed great influence over their parishioners, the children were piously brought up, the population had not outgrown the church establishment, and the Scotch, above all other people, deserved the praise of being a frugal, industrious, and religious nation.

Obvious as this is, Wesley seems not to have perceived it; and it is evident that he regarded both the forms and discipline of the church of Scotland, with a disposition rather to detect what was* objectionable, than to acknowledge what was good."Lodging with a sensible man," he writes, " I inquired particularly into the present discipline of the Scotch parishes. In one parish, it seems, there are twelve ruling elders: in another, there are fourteen. And what are these? men of great sense and deep experience? Neither one nor the other; but they are the richest men in the parish. And are the richest, of course, the best and the wisest men ? Does the Bible teach this? I fear not. What manner of governors, then, will these be? Why, they are generally just as capable of governing a parish, as of commanding an army." Had he been free from prejudice, instead of being led away by an abuse of words, he would have perceived how the fact stood,-that the elders were required to be respectable in their circumstances, as well as in character: and that, without that respectability, they could not have obtained respect. That the forms of the kirk, or, rather, its want of forms, should offend him, is not surprising. "O," he cries, "what a difference is there between the English and the Scotch mode of burial ! The English does honour to human nature, and even to the poor remains that were once a temple of the Holy Ghost: but when I see in Scotland a coffin put into the earth, and covered up without word spoken, it reminds me of what was spoken concerning Jehoiakim, he shall be buried with the burial of an ass." It was, indeed, no proof of judgment, or of feeling, to reject the finest and most affecting ritual that ever was composed-a service that finds its way to the heart, when the heart stands most in need of such consolation, and is open to receive it. Yet Wesley might have known, that the silent interment of the Scotch is not without solemnity; and, in their lonely

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*One of his charges against the Scotch clergy was, that " with pride, bitterness, and bigotry, selfindulgence was joined; self-denial was little taught and practised. It is well if some of them did not despise or even condemn all self-denial in things indifferent, as in apparel or food, as nearly allied to popery." (Journal x. p. 20.) And in one of his sermons he says, "there is always a fast day in the week preceding the administration of the Lord's Supper (in Scotland.) But occasionally looking into a book of accounts, in one of their vestries, I observed so much set down for the dinners of the ministers on the fast day. And I am informed there is the same article in them all. And is there any doubt but that the people fast just as their ministers do? But what a farce is this! what a miserable burlesque upon a plain Christian duty!" (Works, vol. x. p. 419.) 15

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burial grounds, and family burial places, he might have seen something worthy of imitation in England.

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Writing at Glasgow, he says, My spirit was moved within me at the sermons I heard, both morning and afternoon. They contained much truth, but were no more likely to awaken one soul than an Italian opera." The truth was, that he did not understand the Scotch character, and therefore condemned the practice of those preachers who did. "I spoke as closely as I could," he says of his own sermons, "and made a pointed application to the hearts of all that were present. I am convinced this is the only way whereby we can do any good in Scotland. This very day I heard many excellent truths delivered in the kirk; but as there was no application, it was likely to do as much good as the singing of a lark. I wonder the pious ministers in Scotland are not sensible of this: they cannot but see that no sinners are convinced of sin, none converted to God

by this way of preaching; how strange is it then, that neither reason nor experience teaches them to take a better way!" They aimed at no such effect. The new birth of the Methodists, their instantaneous conversions, their assurance, their sanctification, and their perfection, were justly regarded as extravagancies by the Scotch as well as by the English clergy.

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It was with more reason that Wesley groaned over the manner in which the Reformation had been effected in Scotland; and, when he stood amid the ruins of Aberbrothock, exclaimed, God, deliver us from reforming mobs!" Nor would he admit of the apology that is offered for such havoc, and for the character of John Knox. know," he says, "it is commonly said, the work to be done needed such a spirit. Not so the work of God does not, cannot need the work of the devil to forward it. And a calm even spirit goes through rough work far better than a furious one. Although, therefore, God did use, at the time of the Reformation, sour, overbearing, passionate men, yet he did not use them because they were such; but notwithstanding they were so. And there is no doubt he would have used them much more, had they been of an humbler and milder spirit." On the other hand, he bore testimony to the remarkable decorum with which public worship was conducted by the Episcopalians in Scotland it exceeded any thing which he had seen in England: and he admitted, that even his own congregations did not come up to it. He did, however, this justice to the Scotch, that he acknowledged they were never offended at plain dealing; and that, in this respect, they were a pattern to all mankind. Nor did he ever meet with the slightest molestation from mobs, or the slightest insult. One day, however, a warrant was issued against him at Edinburgh, by the sheriff, and he was carried to a house adjoining the Tolbooth. certain George Sutherland, who, to his own mishap, had at one time been a member of the society, had deposed, that Hugh Sanderson, one of John Wesley's preachers, had taken from his wife one hundred pounds in money, and upwards of thirty pounds in goods; and had, besides that, terrified her into madness; so that, through the want of her help, and the loss of business, he was damaged five hundred pounds. He had deposed also, that the said John Wesley and Hugh Sanderson, to evade his pursuit, were preparing to fly the

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country; and, upon these grounds, had obtained a warrant to search for, seize, and incarcerate them in the Tolbooth, till they should find security for their appearance. The sheriff, with great indiscretion, granted this warrant against Wesley, who could in no way be held legally responsible for the conduct of any of his preachers; but when the affair was tried, the accusation was proved to be so false and calumnious, that the prosecutor was heavily fined.*

Looking for any cause of failure rather than the real one, Wesley imputed the want of success in Scotland to the disposition which his preachers manifested to remain stationary there. "We are not called," he says, "to sit still in one place it is neither for the health of our souls nor bodies we will have travelling preachers in Scotland, or none. I will serve the Scotch as we do the English, or leave them. While I live, itinerant preachers shall be itinerants, if they choose to remain in connexion with us. The thing is fixed : the manner of effecting it is to be considered." But here lay the difficulty; for the spiritual warfare of Methodism was carried on upon the principle of deriving means from its conquests; and the errant-preacher, who failed of success in his expeditions, oftentimes fasted, when there was no virtue of self-denial in the compulsory abstinence.

A curious instance of this occurred in the case of Thomas Taylor, one of those preachers who tempered zeal with judgment, and who found means, during his itinerancy, by the strictest economy of time, to acquire both the Greek and Hebrew languages. This person was appointed to Glasgow. He had gone through hard service in Wales and in Ireland, in wild countries, and among wild men but this populous city presented a new scene, and offered something more discouraging than either bodily fatigue or bodily danger. There were no Methodists here, no place of entertainment, no place to preach in, no friend with whom to communicate it was a hard winter, and he was in a strange land. Having, however, taken a lodging, he gave out that he should preach on the green: a table was carried to the place, and going there at the appointed time, he found-two barber's boys and two old women waiting. My very soul," he says, "sunk within me. I had travelled by land and by water near six hundred miles to this place, and behold my congregation! None but they who have experienced it can tell what a task it is to stand out in the open air to preach to nobody, especially in such a place as Glasgow !'' Nevertheless, he mounted his table, and began to sing; the singing he had entirely to himself; but perseverance brought about him some two hundred poor people; and continuing, day after day, he collected at last large audiences. One evening, the largest congregation that he had ever seen was assembled; his table was too low; and even when a chair was placed upon it, the rostrum was still not sufficiently elevated for the multitudes who surrounded him; so he mounted upon a high wall, and cried aloud, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live!" They were still as the dead; and he conceived great hope from the profound attention with which they

* One thousand pounds, says Wesley in his Journal; and omits to add, that it was one thousand pounds Scotch, Anglice, A thousand shillings.

listened; but when he had done, he says, "they made a lane for me to walk through the huge multitude, while they stood staring at me, but no one said, where dwellest thou ?",

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This reception brought with it double mortification-to the body as well as the mind. An itinerant always counted upon the hospitality of his flock, and stood, indeed, in need of it. Taylor had every thing to pay for his room, fire, and attendance, cost him three shillings per week; his fare was poor in proportion to bis lodging; and to keep up his credit with his landlady, he often committed the pious fraud of dressing himself as if he were going out to dinner, and after a dry walk, returned home hungry. He never, in all the rest of his life, kept so many fast days. He sold his horse this resource, however, could not maintain him long; and, in the midst of his distress, a demand was made upon him by one of his hearers, which was not likely to give him a favourable opinion of the national character. This man, perceiving that Taylor was a bad singer, and frequently embarrassed by being obliged to sing the Scotch version, (because the people knew nothing of the Methodist hymns,) offered his services to act as precentor, and lead off the psalms. This did excellently well, till he brought in a bill of thirteen and four pence for his work, which was just four pence a time the poor preacher paid the demand, and dismissed him and the Scotch psalms together. Taylor's perseverance was not, however, wholly lost. Some dissenters from the kirk were then building what is called in Glasgow a Kirk of Relief, for the purpose of choosing their own minister. One of the leading men had become intimate with him, and offered to secure him a majority of the voters. This was no ordinary temptation comfort, honour, and credit, with £140 a year, in exchange for hunger and contempt: but there was honour also on the other side. The preacher, though he was alone in Glasgow, belonged to a wellorganized and increasing society, where he had all the encouragement of co-operation, friendship, sympathy, and applause. He rejected the offer; and, before the spring, he formed a regular society of about forty persons, who procured a place to meet in, and furnished it with a pulpit and seats. When they had thus housed him, they began to inquire how he was maintained; if he had an estate; or what supplies from England. He then explained to them his own circumstances, and the manner in which the preachers were supported, by small contributions. This necessary part of the Methodist economy was cheerfully established among them; and, when he departed, he left a certain provision for his successor, and a flock of seventy souls. But, even in this populous city, Wesley, upon his last visit to Scotland, when his venerable age alone might have made him an object of curiosity and reasonable wonder, attracted few bear"The congregation," he says, "was miserably small, verifying what I had often heard before, that the Scotch dearly love the word of the Lord-on the Lord's day. If I live to come again, I will take care to spend only the Lord's day at Glasgow."

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