JOHN WESLEY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 107, 6 May 1926, Page 16

JOHN WESLEY

AN OXFORD BICENTENARY

MABK LEFT UPON HISTORY.

' The bi-eentenary of the election of John Wesley as a-Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, was commemorated by ja dinner at the college, a service in the college chapel, and a' breakfast in the dining hall of Christ Church, of which College "Wesley was for some time a student. Representatives of the various Methodist* churches were present at ;these gatherings, says "The Times." Though there have been among English religious leaders some who _ were j certainly wiser, and perhaps better, men, there has never' been ono who jnade so great a mark upon the history )i>f the country, and, it may be, even more, beyond its shores. Ansolm was a much greater man, Joseph Butler a , jnuch wiser, Matthew Parker was much more prudent, much more statesmanlike, there was more of the pure saint in Edward Pusey and John Keblo and Richard Meux Benson; but none of them, it is safe to say, moved more men and women to a life of holiness and philanthropy. To the great religious movement of ;whieh he- was the leader, Lecky attributes the fact that the doctrines of the French Revolution never took root in England. He is quite right. The senjtinientalism (a word "Wesley hated) of 'the French reformers was diverted by his preaching, and by his disciples, injto another channel; and, if its issue in practical philanthropy was .delayed, it eventually became : more intense and more secure. The influence of his teaching also emerged as the defeat pf Calvinism. The history of England proves the success of the smashing blows which "Wesley dealt against Calvinism and oil behalf of spiritual and moral emancipation. : That' quaint > but, genuine preacher, Bishop'"■ Thorold, of= "Winchester/ once said, "It isIvery easy 'to throw stones at Jacobr and; they hit." That ;is equally true of Wesley. „ Horace Walpbte'said lie was "as1 evidently an ae,tor as..Garrick. !■ He.spoke his sermon, but fast, and' with so little accent,that I am sure he lias often uttered it,, for it was like ,a>lesson; ..There weTe part and; eloquence ;in: it; but towards end. he exalted his Voice and acted yery ugiy enthusiasm: decried learning, ;and told ■stories, like Latimer, of the fool'bi-.Msvcollege, who said, 'I thanks '.GodiforVeverything.' " The meaning ''of which" certainly is that .he was a popular preacher of the highest class. In his-own time, and since, people have made merry over his love affairs, and derided; him -because' his wife dragged him: across the floor1 by his hair. But no one now ; :doubts the-purity of his life or the aipuplicity of his heart. He could use the most violent language to others when he reproached them for theirs—he said that of one of his.own preachers was "such as an archangel would not use to the devil." But also lie could be a very angel of gentleness; and men and women 'all over the three kingdoms loyed him for. it. Unlike so many of the "revivslists" of the century before him, Wesley be 7 lieved with all his heart in a corporate religion. "I am no friends to solitary Christianity," he said; and the greatest work of his life was to build up, an organisation which should help ordinary folk to serve God and man in a close companionship of love. That this led to a larger disunion of English Christians was quite contrary to his emphatic and repeated wish; yet his impetuosity and self will, quite as much as a jealous and timid conservatism among Church leaders — episcopi Anglicani semper pavidi—were' to blame for it. Autocratic, overbearing, imbued to a quite astounding degree with a belief in his own-capacity to advise every human being on every conceivab'- - subject, yet he was an eminently lovable man because so full of. the milk of human kindness and so absolutely sin.cere. ...-..'..■ x Thosewho visit the colleges where in the language cf the time, he was bred, look upon three interesting portraitstwo at Lincoln College, »ne at Christ Church; Those at Lincoln show him in youth and in old age; that at Christ Church, charming, gracious, smiling, best expresses the beauty which those yrho loved him saw as' they looked through .the face to the soul within. More beautiful still: are the pictures of him in extreme old age—such as Hamilton's- in the.'National Portrait Gallery ■ —which show a strange, wistful air of happy expectation,' such as illumined the faces of John Keble and Edward King. His sermons, when they, are read, no more explain, than do Mr. Gladstone's speeches, the influence of the man. His letters, simple, sometimes humorous, always direct, written with unresting pen, show what he was. And the overwhelming evidence of contemporaries establishes him as "a man of great views, great energy, and great yirtues." ; Lincoln College is, in many outward iiespectsj what it was in Wesley's day. He was, in some.ways, a typicai Lincolnshire man, conscientious, sturdy, sensitive, and independent. All those qualities he showed, as a college tutor, a Christian minister working in Oxford among the poor, and as the founder of a little society which should actively carry out the principles of the Church. It is well, indeed, that he ehould be commemorated in Oxford. He was almost a typical Oxford man—a (Student of the classics and of the literature of his day, a very neat, well dressed person, a highly emotional person, very determined and obstinate person, keen and heart-set upon the practical issues of life. While Bacon, the Cambridge man; took all knowledge for his province, Wesley, of Oxford, took the whole world for -his parish. As Oxford honoured her great son, there were many who echoed the last [words of Southey's Life as they think of that reunion among Christians ;which the commemoration may well prefigure:—"The obstacles to this are surely not insuperable, perhaps not so difficult as they may appear. And, -were this effected, John Wesley would ■ then be ranked, not only among the' most remarkablci and influential men of lis age, but among the great benefactors of his country and his kind."