JOHN WESLEY’S HOUSE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11580, 16 May 1898, Page 2

JOHN WESLEY’S HOUSE.

[Correspondent “ Canterbury Times.”] LONDON, March 18. The City Road witnessed what John Wesley would have called "a revival "last Wednesday, for on that day, the anniversary of his death, amidst the universal ■ rejoicing of his followers the dedication of the house of the founder of Methodism took place. The house is a plain, unpretentious little building on the south side of i the quadrangle which encloses the Wesley Chapel, the foundation of which was laid by John Wesley himself in 1777, the Wesley Statue and the Superintendent’s residence. Up to last June the house had been occupied by a Methodist resident minister, but when he was moved to another district, and the house remained empty and exhibited symptoms of decay, it was decided to create a fund which should secure it as a' permanent possession for the denomination. Of the .£IO,OOO required for the purpose, .£SOOO was raised by subscription, and the other £SOOO was given as an ; endowment by a celebrated Wesleyan trust, the origin of which was thus described by the Rev T. E. Westerdale, the resident superintendent, the prime mover in the collection of the necessary funds-: “In the year 1865 a small band of mission workers in connection with the City Road, Quarterly Meeting carried on a little Sunday school mission in one of the most dismal alleys of Old Bishopsgate. Mr Ralph Smith, a shrewd and far-seeing, man, became impressed with the urgency of securing the freehold of the site on which the little mission school stood. The teachers set to work, and they succeeded in raising by a bazaar £230. With this £230 Mr Smith bought the freehold. In eighteen months this £230 of Methodist money was in the ultimate issue converted into £6400. The bulk of that money has been left intact during all the thirty years; £1250 of it they gave .as a donation to the erection', of Radnor Street schools, and the remainder they have handed over •to ns absolutely and for ever on the. following conditions :—That the money so transferred shall be tied on Wesley’s house; that the capital sum shall never be alienated for any other purpose for all time, except by the consent of the Conference previously obtained; that this conveyance should be duly executed' by a deed that should make the conditions bindmg in perpetuity; and that in handing over this £SOOO the trustees of Wesley’s Chapel should on their part pledge to liquidate all the debts of whatsoever kind connected with the chapel and its premises.” Wesley’s house is now, therefore, like that of Carlyle, one of the show places of the metropolis. It is to be kept as far as possible just as Wesley left it, and is to be devoted to the following purposes : As a Wesley Museum or centre to which Wesley curios, in the form of original furniture, books, manuscripts, paintings pictures, sketches, &c., can be sent as girts or bequests,- the trustees on their part gnarantfeeing their safe and good preservation and their non-alienation. - The old house still contains a bureau, a bookcase, and a teapot belonging to Wesley, and it is expected that several other Wesley relics will be received by the trustees. The three rooms on the first floor in which the founder lived are never again to be used for domestic purposes. The front large room in which he died is to be used as a Wesley museum, the central room, in which his great sermons and journals were written, is to he converted into a Wesley library for the reception and preservation, of original letters, manuscripts, &c., first editions of his works, collateral literature, and other contemporary writings. The little prayer room facing the chapel is to be kept intact “in memory of those early morning scenes when the great man with God. The trustees intend to use the basement and the two uppermost floors of the house and the ground floor rooms as a resider.ee for sisters or other Christian workers.