CENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF JOHN WESLEY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VII, Issue 10, 7 March 1891, Page 8

CENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF JOHN WESLEY.

HE present month will witness all over the world a re union of the professors of Wesleyanism in a celebration of the hundreth anniversary of the decease of their founder. The development of Methodism a century and a half ago appeared to the English people living under King George 11. much in the same light as that of the Salvation Army does to us in the present day. At that time Wesleyanism, or Methodism, as it was called came as a visible awakening of the religious feeling in the Church of England, which had fallen into that condition of torpidity and social over-weeningness which inevitably overtakes all wealthy and solidly-established institutions. In those times to be a Methodist was as much a sign of eccentricity in a decently reared and educated person as to be a Salvationist now ; but the radical and reforming spirit, generated by the diffusion of knowledge, found a vent through this religious channel with effects of which mankind is to day reaping the benefit. John Wesley, founder of the English Methodists, was born 17th June 1703, at Epworth in Lincolnshire, where his fat her was clergyman. He was educated at the Charterhouse school, and in his seventeenth year entered Christ * Church, Oxford. In 1726 he was elected a fellow of Lincoln. After officiating for a short time as his father’s curate, Wesley returned to Oxford, where he became a member of a little devotional society which his brother Charles Wesley (1708 —1788, still remembered for his noble Hymns), had established. This was the first germ of Methodism (q. v.). At this time the two W esleys were much under the influence of William Law (q. v.), author of the Serious Call. On 14th October, 1735, they sailed for Georgia bound on mission work. John Wesley had much intercourse with the Moravians during his sojurn in America, and on his return in 1738 this was continued, till two years later he separated from them. Although to all appearance he had long been an earnest God-fearing man, he has himself given us the exact date of his conversion —the evening of the 24th May, 1738, at a quarter to nine evening, when he felt an irresistible assurance that Christ had taken away his sins. Certainly from this period his profound religious activity begins. He travelled for a while preaching ‘ repentance and judgment to come,’ and when the cold formalism of the established religion quickly changed into angry opposition, he was obliged in self-defence to form his adherents into a regular organisation—in other words, to establish a new sect. <*n 12th May, 1739, the first Methodist chattel was founded. The rest of Wesley’s life was given to continuous and ear nest work in the cause which he had made his own. During over half a century of eager activity ‘it was computed that he travelled about 225,000 miles and preached more than 40,500 sermons, not including addresses, exhortations, and speeches.’ He died March 2nd, 1791, and was buried in the City Hoad Chapel. Wesley held the evangelical creed with but few modifications, though he recoiled from the extreme deductions of Calvinism. But he breathed into this creed the breath of life. His sermons were simple, straight, direct appeals, spoken from the heart to the heart, without the waste of one superfluous word ; hence their extraordinary effect. His power, in short, was that not unfitly named * revivalist’; what men already held an intellectual belief, he made them hold as a living, •» reality.

In anticipation of this centennial celebration public interest has already centered round the London home and City area wherein some of the most signal triumphs of the great Founder of Methodism were wrought. Bunhill Fields Burial Ground—that Campo Santo of the Dissenters—the Tabernacle in Moorfields, and vaiious spots in and about Finsbury and the City Koad, have long been regarded as historic ground whereon the i'reat battle of Nonconformity was fought and won. In the early days of Wesley and Whitfield, Old Moorfields was the favourite haunt of openair preachers. Both these remarkable men chose this spot for their London lectures, which were first delivered in the churches, and then —as the vast crowds that flocked to hear them—computed by a print of the period, at twenty, thirty, and even fifty thousand—made that practice dangerous, under the wide dome of heaven itself. One of the most interesting cradles of Methodism is the old chapel in the City Road, which has now, through stress of age, become reduced to a state of sad decay, and it has been thoughtfully proposed that this monument of a mighty movement should not be effaced, but that the centenary of John Wesley’s death should be fittingly marked by the reverend restoration of the building in which, in his later life, he

regularly preached. Adjacent to the chapel stands the house in which he dwelt, and this will also be included in the scheme of renovation—so that it may be, hereafter, devoted to a Methodist library and museum. Through the courtesy of the officials in charge of this most interesting home, our artist is enabled to produce a couple of sketches of the inteiior aspect. He gives us two views, one of which was originally Wesley’s bedroom, now used as a sitting room, with the old clock and the historic threequarter length portrait of Wesley himself, over the mantelpiece, holding the red Bible—the symbol of his presidential office—in his hand ; and the other of the great divine’s modest little study. Both these apartments have been maintained in as nearly as possible the same state as when occupied by the illustiious preacher ; and it is hoped that they may enduringly continue in this state through the aid of the Restoration Fund which has been already started.

The engraving of the death-bed scene is taken from a plate belonging to Mr H. White, law-stationer, Coombes’ Arcade, Auckland, where photos, of the scene can be purchased for 2s 6d each.