WESLEY'S LAST SERMON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

WESLEY'S LAST SERMON.

PLEA FOR KINGSTON HOUSE. SUGGESTED PUBLIC SHRINE. Kingston House, Leatherhead, Surrey, in the grounds of which John "Wesley preached his last sermon in 1791, has been acquired by Leatherhead Urban District Council, who propose to demolish it and to build new municipal offices on the site. Plans of the .proposed new building were lodged recently with the Ministry of Health for approval. When the house was bought by the council, about a year ago, it was understood that its intention was to have it reconstructed and adapted for municipal purposes. Captain K. Bage Gaston, F.R.G.S., has addressed a communication to The Times in which he suggests that pressure should be brought to bear upon the Leatherhead Urban Council to induce them to spare a building jn which Methodists throughout the world have a deep interest. Captain Gaston's proposal is that the house should be reconstructed for use as municipal offices, and that the diningroom, in which Wesley addressed a company on his visit, should be open to nil who care to see it. . Wesley, it is stated, spent the night of I*ebruary 2, 1791, in Kingston House, with tho family of Mr. Belson, a magistrate at Leatherhead, and on the following day lie preached to a small company in tlie dining-room. Before leaving for London he stood beneath the cedar tree, still-standing in the front garden, and addressed the villagers who had assembled to greet him. He died a few days later at tho age of 88. " If the old ivy-mantled house is saved for posterity," Captain Gaston writes, " Leatherhead would rank with the Wcsleynn trilogy of Kpworth, Lincolnshire, the birthplace of the preacherstatesman, Wesley's chapel and museum in City Road, where he rests, and the memorial in Westminster Abbey., bearing Weslcv's uplifting words, ' God buries His workmen but carries on his work.' " Many thousands of Methodists and others from many lands have visited the widelv-famed Kingston House in the past, but generally have been unable to view the interior because of its private occupation. The house could now become a public shrine, to which many thousands more would reverently repair."