CHAPTER IV
EARLIER YEARS AT OXFORD, AND CURACY AT WROOTE
1720—1729
WESLEY entered Oxford University in June, 1720, a week after
his seventeenth birthday. His undergraduate days, like those
of his brothers, Samuel and Charles, were spent at Christ Church,
Cardinal Wolsey’s famous college. He had an allowance
of forty pounds a year as a Charterhouse scholar.* Dr. Wigan,
an eminent classical scholar of that time, was his first tutor,
but he soon removed to a country living, and Mr. Sherman became
his successor. Mr. Badcock describes Wesley at the age of twenty-one
as “the very sensible and acute collegian baffling every
man by the subtleties of logic, and laughing at them for being
so easily routed; a young fellow of the finest classical taste,
of the most liberal and manly sentiments." He was “gay
and sprightly, with a turn for wit and humour.” His wit
was polished, and all his writing showed the gentleman and the
scholar. He had already begun to exercise his poetic gift, and
sent one of his compositions to his father, who told him, “I
like your verses on the sixty-fifth Psalm, and would not have
you bury your talent.” To his brother Samuel he sent some
stanzas after the Latin, composed as a college exercise. This
description of “Chloe’s favourite flea” employed
him, he says, above an hour on the day before he wrote to his
brother. It certainly shows the ease with which he could turn
a rhyme. The pleasant vein of his correspondence may be. gathered
from a letter dated on his twenty-first birth-day. Samuel had
broken his leg. “I believe,” says• John, “I
need not use many arguments to show I am sorry for your misfortune,
though at the same time I am glad you are in a fair way of recovery.
If I had heard of it from any one else, I might probably have
pleased you with some impertinent consolations; but the way
of your relating it is a sufficient proof, that they are what
you don’t stand in need of. And indeed, if I understand
you rightly, you have more reason to thank God that you did
not break both, than to repine because you have broke one leg.
You have undoubtedly heard the story of the Dutch seaman who,
having broke one of his legs by a fall from the mainmast, instead
of condoling himself, thanked God that he had not broke his
neck. I scarce know whether your first news vexed me, or your
last news pleased me more; but I can assure you, that though
I did not cry for grief at the former, I did for joy at the
latter part of your letter. The two things which I most wished
for of almost anything in the world were to see my mother and
Westminster once again; and to see them both together was so
far above my expectations, that I almost looked upon it as next
to an impossibility. I have been so very frequently disappointed
when I had set my heart on any pleasure, that I will never again
depend on any before it comes. However, I shall be obliged to
you if you will tell me, as near as you can, how soon my uncle”
(Annesley) “is expected in England, and my mother in London.
“Since you have a mind to see some of my verses, I have
sent you some, which employed me above an hour yesterday in
the afternoon. There is one, and, I am afraid, but one good
thing in them, that is, they are short” *
The young
collegian seems to have been disappointed again. Mrs. Wesley
came to London to meet her only brother, Mr. Annesley, who was
in the service of the East India Company. The newspapers had
announced that he was to arrive by a certain vessel, and she
came to meet him; but unfortunately he did not sail in that
vessel, and was never again heard of.
Wesley’s
health during his first years at college was far from vigorous.
In a letter to his mother in 1723 he says that whilst walking
in the country his nose bled so violently that he was almost
choked. He was only able to stop the bleeding by plunging into
the river.~ He was apparently in a chronic state of financial
embarrassment. His tutor told him that he would make the fees
as low as possible, but he had a constant struggle to make both
ends meet. In August, 1724, his mother wrote to ask whether
he had any reasonable hopes of being out of debt. She was much
concerned for a kind friend that had lent him ten pounds, and
encouraged him to hope that they might pick up a few crumbs
for him at Epworth before the end of the year. This friend afterwards
paid himself out of Wesley’s exhibition.~ His father helped
him a little; but his own heavy debts, now amounting to three
hundred and fifty pounds, left very little either for his home
or his children. In one letter he expresses a hope that he will
“have no occasion to remember any more some things that
are past.” In weighing this sentence, we must not, however,
forget Wesley’s scanty allowance at Christ Church. It
is quite possible that a sprightly young student may not have
acted with such rigid economy as the Rector deemed to be necessary.
It is not likely that much more than this is meant. On November
1st, 1724, he tells his mother that a great many rogues were
about Oxford, so that it was not safe to be out late at night.
A gentleman whom he knew was standing at the door of a coffee-house
about seven one evening. When he turned round his cap and wig
were snatched off his head; and though he followed the thief
to a considerable distance, he was unable to recover them. “I
am pretty safe from such gentlemen,” he adds, “for
unless they carried me away, carcase and all, they would have
but a poor purchase.” These were the days when robbers
took special pleasure in stealing the perukes of gentlemen in
full dress, who sometimes found it necessary to sit with their
back to the horses, lest a piece of the back of the carriage
should be cut out, and the head-dress stolen. The same letter
refers to Jack Sheppard’s escape from Newgate, which was
then exciting great attention in Oxford, and to Dr. Cheyne’s
“Book of Health and Long Life,” a plea for temperance
and exercise. The writer condemned salted or highly seasoned
food, and recommended a diet of two pints of water, one of wine,
with eight ounces of animal and twelve of vegetable food per
day. This book led Wesley to eat sparingly and drink water,
a change which he considered to be one great means of preserving
his health.
When he went
to Oxford, Wesley still “said his prayers,” both
in public and private, and read the Scriptures, with other
devotional books, especially comments on the New Testament.
He had not any notion of inward holiness, but went on “habitually,
and for the most part very contentedly, in some or other known
sin, indeed, with some intermission and short struggles, especially
before and after the Holy Communion,” which he was obliged
to receive three times a year. “I cannot well tell,”
he says, “what I hoped to be saved by now, when I was
continually sinning against that little light I had, unless
by those transient fits of what many divines taught me to call
repentance.” * A conversation which he had late one night
with the porter of his college made a lasting impression on
his mind, and convinced him that there was something in religion
which he had not yet found. At first Wesley indulged in a little
pleasantry but when he found that this man had only one coat,
and that though nothing had passed his lips that day but a drink
of water, his heart was full of gratitude, he said, “You
thank God when you have nothing to wear, nothing to eat, and
no bed to lie upon. What else do you thank Him for ?“
“I thank Him,” answered the porter, “that
He has given me my life and being, and a heart to love Him,
and a desire to serve Him.”
The beginning of 1725 seems to have been marked by a great
increase of spiritual desire. Wesley was not yet twenty-two.
He thought of entering the Church, and Consulted his parents.
His father wished that he should devote himself to “critical
learning,” but Mrs. Wesley was greatly pleased by his
desire to take orders. His father wrote him on January 26th,
1725, to express his pleasure that his son had such a high conception
of the work of a minister, and to point out the motives that
should govern his choice of such a life. “The principal
spring and motive, to which all the former should be only secondary,
must certainly be the glory of God and the service of His Church
in the edification of our neighbour. And woe to him who, with
any meaner leading view, attempts so sacred a work.” His
shrewd sense is seen in another paragraph: “You ask me
which is the best commentary on the Bible? I answer, The Bible
itself. For the several paraphrases and translations of it in
the Polyglot, compared with the original, and with one another,
are, in my opinion, to an honest, devout, industrious, and humble
man, infinitely preferable to any comment I ever saw. But Grotius
is the best, for the most part, especially on the Old Testament.”
* It was in this letter that he told his son he thought it too
soon for him to take orders. He changed his opinion, however,
before long. He urged him to give himself to prayer and study,
and promised that he would help him with the expenses of ordination
About this time Wesley began to study the “Imitation of
Christ,” which he had often seen, but never studied carefully.
It taught him that true religion was seated in the heart, and
that God’s law extended to all our thoughts as well as
our words and actions. He was very angry with A Kempis for being
too strict, though he only read Dean Stanhope’s translation;
but nevertheless he frequently found much sensible comfort in
the reading, such as he had been a stranger to before. Wesley’s
love of A Kempis never failed. In 1761 he told his friend Byrom
that “Thomas a Kempis was next to the Bible.” Up
to 1725 Wesley had never had any religious friend. Now he was
fortunate enough to meet with one, though we do not know his
name, who became a true helper. He began to alter the whole
form of his conversation, and earnestly sought to lead a new
life. He took the Lord’s Supper every week, watched against
all sin in word or deed, and began to strive and pray for inward
holiness. “So that now, doing so much and living so good
a life,” he says, “I doubted not but I was a good
Christian.” *
Jeremy Taylor’s “Holy Living and Dying,”
which Wesley met with and studied in 1725, when he was thinking
about his ordination, led him to make a more careful use of
all his time. He now began to keep those journals which afterwards
became such a storehouse of facts about his wonderful itinerancy
and his evangelical mission. The difficulties which arose in
reading Kempis and Taylor he referred to his father and mother,
whose luminous answers did much to form his opinions and save
him from asceticism.
Whilst preparing for orders, Wesley won his first convert.
Somewhere about the midsummer of 1725,f he and a young gentleman
with whom he was intimate quietly left the company in which
they were, about eight o’clock one evening, and went to
St. Mary’s Church to see the funeral of a young lady with
whom both of them had been acquainted. As they paced one of
the aisles, Wesley asked his companion if he really thought
himself his friend, and if so, why he would not do him all the
good that lay in his power. When his friend began to protest,
Wesley entreated that he might have the pleasure of making him
a whole Christian, to which he knew’ he was half persuaded
already. He reminded him that he could not do him a greater
kindness. as both of them “would be fully convinced when
they came to follow that young woman.” Wesley’s
companion became exceedingly serious, and the good impression
was abiding. Eighteen months after this conversation he died
of consumption. Wesley saw him three days before his death,
and preached his funeral sermon at his special request.
Wesley’s financial difficulties were overcome by his
father’s help, and he was ordained deacon in Christ Church
Cathedral on Sunday, September 19th, 1725, by Dr. Potter, then
Bishop of Oxford, who also admitted him to priest’s orders
in the same place on September 22nd, 1728.* Dr. Hayward, who
examined him for priest’s orders, put one question to
him of which Wesley’s, whole after-history was an illustration,
“Do you know what you are about? You are bidding defiance
to all mankind. He that would live a Christian priest, ought
to know, that whether his hand be against every man or no, he
must expect every man’s hand should be against him."
In a sermon, “On Attending the Church Service,”
Wesley refers to a counsel given him by Dr. Potter, when Archbishop
of Canterbury, which also made a lasting impression on his mind:
“If you desire to be extensively useful, do not spend
your time and strength in contending for or against such things
as are of a disputable nature, but in testifying against open,
notorious vice, and in promoting real essential holiness.”
Soon after his ordination, in 1725, Wesley delivered his first
sermon. On October 16th, 1771, he says, “I preached at
South Lye. Here it was that I preached my first sermon, six-and-forty
years ago. One man was in my present audience who heard it.
Most of the rest are gone to their long home.” •
The little village of South Leigh is about three miles from
Witney. On January 11th, 1726, he preached a funeral sermon
at Epworth for John Griffith, the son of one of Samuel Wesley’s
parishioners. He dwelt mainly on the folly of indulging grief
except for sin from the text 2 Sam. xii. 23. His references
to the young man were singularly concise. “It is of no
service to the dead to celebrate his actions, since he has the
applause of God and His holy angels, and his own conscience.
And it is of little use to the living, since he who desires
a pattern may find enough proposed as such in the sacred writings.”
His testimony to Griffith is forcible, though brief. “To
his parents he was an affectionate, dutiful son; to his acquaintance
an ingenuous, cheerful, good-natured companion; and to me a
well-tried, sincere friend.”
After his ordination Wesley quietly pursued his divinity studies.
But the matter of pressing interest was his election to a Fellowship
at Lincoln College. He devoted himself to the classics and other
branches of study, as well as to his “academical exercises.”
His father had mentioned the Fellowship in his letter on January
26th, 1725. During the following summer Wesley’s friends
earnestly exerted themselves on his behalf. When Dr. Morley,
the Rector of Lincoln, was approached on the subject, he said,
“I will inquire into Mr. Wesley’s character.”
He afterwards gave him leave to stand as a candidate, and exerted
himself to secure his election. “In July,” Wesley’s
father says, “I waited on Dr. Morley, and found him more
civil than ever. I will write to the Bishop of Lincoln (the
visitor of the college) again, and to your brother Samuel the
next post. Study hard, lest your opponents beat you.”
• His opponents at Lincoln College tried to weaken his
chance of election by ridiculing his serious behaviour, but
timely letters from home helped Wesley to show a firm front
against this factious opposition.
On August 2nd, 1725, his father sent him a beautiful little
note of encouragement from Wroote :— "Dear Son,-If
you be what you write I shall be happy. As to the gentlemen
candidates you mention, it: does anybody think the devil is
dead, or asleep, or that he has no agents left? Surely virtue
can bear being laughed at. The Captain and Master endured something
more for us before He entered into glory, and unless we track
His steps, in vain do we hope to share His glory with Him.
"Nought else but blessing from your loving father,SAMUEL WESLEY."
On March 17th, 1726, Wesley was unanimously elected Fellow
of Lincoln College. The Fellowship was for natives of Lincoln
county, and had been previously held by John Thorold, afterwards
Sir John Thorold, who resigned on May 3rd, 1725, but the college
had kept the Fellowship vacant. Wesley was admitted on March
28th. The fact that Sir John Thorold was a member of Lincoln
College and Wesley’s predecessor in this fellowship forms
a pleasant link between the itinerant evangelist and the Lincoinshire
squire, who preached twice a week, and is called “our
new star of righteousness” in the correspondence of the
day. Sir John Thorold wrote three theological treatises, which
bear witness to the profound interest he felt in all religious
questions. He was the great-grandfather of the present Bishops
of Rochester and Nottingham (Dr. Thorold and Dr. Trollope).
Wesley’s father wrote him a letter, addressed “Dear
Mr. Fellow-Elect of Lincoln,” enclosing a bill for twelve
pounds on Dr. Morley, which he had paid to the Rector’s
use at Gainsborough, near which town Dr. Morley held the living
of Scotton. “You are inexpressibly obliged to that generous
man,” he says. The expenses connected with the election
had greatly taxed Samuel Wesley. He had not much more than five
pounds to keep his family from the end of March till after harvest.
“What will be my own fate God knows. Sed passi graviora”
(“ But we have suffered heavier troubles"). “Whatever
I am, my Jack is Fellow of Lincoln.” John’s letter
to his brother Samuel shows how timely his father’s unexpected
help had been. All his debts were paid, the expenses of his
“treat” defrayed, and he had still above ten pounds
in hand. If he could get leave to stay in the country till his
college allowance commenced, he felt that this noney would meet
all claims upon him .
Wesley’s first impressions of his new college were very
favourable. “I never knew a college besides ours whereof
the members were so perfectly well satisfied with )ne another,
and so inoffensive to the other part of the University. All
I have yet seen of the fellows are both well-natured and well-bred;
men admirably disposed as well to preserve peace and good neighbourhood
among themselves, as to promote it wherever else they have any
acquaintance.” *
How thoroughly economical he was another letter shows.f He
wore his hair remarkably long, and flowing loose upon his shoulders.
His mother urged him to have it cut for the sake of his health.
He thought that it might improve his complexion and appearance
to do so, but these were not sufficiently strong reasons to
make him incur an expense of two or three pounds a year. In
this letter occurs the famous sentence which henceforth became
Wesley’s motto, “Leisure and I have taken leave
of one another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my
health is so long indulged me.”
Charles Wesley came up to Christ Church in 1726, soon after
John’s removal from that college to Lincoln. His father
had been so much pressed by the efforts made for John that he
did not expect that he could do any thing for Charles when he
went up to the University, though be afterwards promised to
give him ten pounds a year. John and Samuel seem to have carefully
considered what Charles could do to lighten his expenses. Mr.
Sherman, John’s tutor, suggested that his brother might
let his room in Christ Church and take a garret in Peck-water,
so as to gain about six pounds a year, but John did not approve
of this suggestion. Charles, however, was better off than his
brother had been. He came up from Westminster, anxious to enjoy
himself, and when John spoke to him about religion would answer
warmly, “What, would you have me to be a saint all at
once?” and would hear no more.
In April, 1726, Wesley obtained leave of absence from the University,
and spent the summer in Lincolnshire. He generally read prayers
and preached twice every Sunday, besides assisting his father
in parish work. He steadily kept up his own studies, and had
many opportunities of conversation with his father and mother
on religious subjects and matters of general interest, which,
with his own reflections, are carefully noted in his diary.
He still cultivated the muse. He had sent two pieces of his
poetry to his brother Samuel in March.
Whilst at Epworth he began a paraphrase on Psalm civ., which
gives abundant evidence of his vigour of thought and power of
versification. His mother gave him some judicious advice about
this time, which he carefully followed. “I would not have
you leave off making verses; rather make poetry your diversion,
though never your business.”
On October 21st, 1726, the young Fellow returned to Oxford.
His description of Lincoln College shows how congenial were
his new surroundings. Dr. Morley was his friend, and the twelve
Fellows formed a pleasant little society. “Wesley’s
room,” with a vine creeping round the window, known as
“Wesley’s vine,” is still pointed out to visitors.~
His reputation as a scholar and a man of literary taste was
now established in the University. On November 6th he was chosen
Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes. Dr. Whitehead says
that his skill in logic was universally known and admired. H
He proceeded Master of Arts on February 14th, 1727, and acquired
considerable reputation in his disputation for his degree. He
told Henry Moore that he delivered three lectures on the occasion,
one on natural philosophy, entitled, "De Anima Brutorum;”
one on moral philosophy, “De Julio Cesare;” a third
on religion, “De Amore Dei.”
The Rev. Andrew
Clarke, of Lincoln College, has kindly supplied the following
particulars of Wesley’s connection with that college.t
On May 6th, 1726, he was nominate by the Sub-rector to preach
the sermon at St. Michael’ Church on St. Michael’s
Day, which was always delivered by one of the Fellows. Wesley
was nominated again in 1732. He was appointed Claviger (or keeper
of one of the three keys of the treasury) on November 6th, 1726;
and again in 1731, each time for a twelvemonth. From 1726 to
1730 he was lecturer in logic; from 1726 to 1728, and again
from 1729 to 1734, lecturer in Greek; from 1730 to 1735, lecturer
in philosophy. All these appointments date from November 6th.
On May 6th in three different years,—1737, 1743, and 1749,—Wesley
was nominated by the Sub-rector to preach the sermon by a Fellow
in All Saints’ Church, on the dedication festival of that
church. In 1731, 1737, and 1743, he was chosen, with another
Fellow, to preach the Lent Sermons at Combe Lingu, Oxon. In
1737 Wesley was in Georgia, but the sermons might be preached
by a substitute. The Pocket Guide for Oxford in 1747 says that
Lincoln College had its Rector, twelve Fellows,’ nine
scholars, twenty exhibitioners, and about seventy other students.
When Wesley
entered Lincoln College, Dr. Morley was Rector, John Brereton,
afterwards Rector of Great Leighs, Essex, Senior Fellow and
Sub-rector for the year. The other Fellows were Dr. W. Lupton
(Prebendary of Durham; died December z3th, 2726),
Knightly Adams (afterwards Rector of Great Leighs), William
Vesey (Chaplain of St. Michael’s, Oxford)~Thomas Vaughan,
John Tottenham, Euseby Isham (Rector 1731).
1755), Richard
Hutchins (Rector 1755—1781. “The college never had
a better Rector in its history, and few of its benefactors have
been more munificent”), Michael Robinson (Chaplain of
All Saints’, Oxford, Rector of Great Leighs), Benjamin
Mangey (died i73o), Charles Dymoke, John Wesley.
After taking
his Master’s degree Wesley felt that his time was more
at his own disposal. Hitherto the University curriculum had
been the guide of his studies. Now he was able to follow the
plan of work which he had marked out for himself. He had fully
come over to his mother’s opinion that there were many
truths that it was not worth while to know. He even laid aside
a controversy between Bishop Hoadly and Bishop Atterbury when
he had reached the middle of it. “I thought the labour
of twenty or thirty hours, if I was sure of succeeding, which
I was not, would be but ill rewarded by that important
The Fellows
of Lincoln were required to take orders within a year, and to
secure their B.D. degree within seven years after they became
M.A. Wesley escaped the obligation to proceed as Bachelor of
Divinity. John Crosby, treasurer of Lincoln Cathedral in 1476,
founded a fellowship which required its holder to study canon
law and take a degree in that faculty. After the Reformation
the degree in civil law took its place. When a Fellow found
it inconvenient to take his B.D. he was elected to this canonist
fellowship, which he held till he had taken his B.D. After Dr.
Morley vacated this, in 1703, eight other Fellows had held it
from three to five years each. On July 13th, 1736, when in Georgia,
Wesley was elected to it. He would not give it up, as he did
not wish to take his B.D., and held it till The result was that
he was the junior in college standing of all Fellows who took
the degree. These facts explain Wesley’s inquiry on June
i8th, 1741, about “the exercises previous to the degree
of Bachelor in Divinity.”
Though admitted Fellow on March 28th, 1726, Wesley, according
to custom, received nothing for half a year. On September 28th,
his first “commons” was paid. This was 1s. 4d. per
week when in residence. In 1731 and 1732 he received piece of
knowledge whether Bishop Hoadly had understood Bishop Atterbury
or no.” *
A letter from one of the Fellows of Lincoln College at the
close of 1727 may show in what high esteem Wesley was held in
his college. Mr. Fenton had a perpetual curacy, which kept him
from Oxford, so that he had not seen Wesley.
"LINCOLN COLLEGE, December 28th, 1727.
"SIR,-Yesterday I had the satisfaction of receiving your kind
and obliging letter, whereby you have given me a singular instance
of that goodness and civility which is essential to your character,
and strongly confirmed to me the many encomiums which are given
you in this respect by all who have the happiness to know you.
This makes me infinitely desirous of your acquaintance. And
when I consider those shining qualities which I hear daily mentioned
in your praise, I cannot but lament the great misfortune we
all suffer in the absence of so agreeable a person from the
college. But I please myself with the thoughts of seeing you
here on Chapter-day, and of the happiness we shall have in your
company in the summer. In the meantime, I return you my most
sincere thanks for this favour, and assure you, that if it should
ever lie in my power to serve you, no one will be more ready
to do it than, sir,
"Your most obliged and most humble servant, "LEw. FENTON."
Wesley had fixed hours of work in the morning and afternoon,
and never suffered himself to deviate from the plan he had laid
down. Monday and Tuesday were thus devoted to the Greek and
Latin classics; Wednesday to logic and ethics; Thursday to Hebrew
and Arabic, Friday to metaphysics and natural philosophy; Saturday
to oratory and poetry, chiefly composing; Sunday to divinity.
At intervals he studied French, which he had begun to learn
two or three years before, and read a great number of modern
books on all subjects. He first read an author regularly through;
then, on a second perusal of the book, he transcribed the important
or striking passages. Euclid, Keil, Gravesande, Sir Isaac Newton,
and other mathematical writers, whose works he weighed with
great care, are mentioned in his diary. He also sometimes amused
himself with experiments in optics.
Wesley’s removal from Christ Church to Lincoln had one
happy result. As soon as he determined to become a real Christian,
not merely a nominal one, he found that his acquaintance were
as ignorant of God as himself; but whilst he was aware of his
ignorance, they were not aware of theirs. He tried to help them,
but without success. “Meantime,” he says, “I
found, by sad experience, that even their harmless conversation,
so called, damped all my good resolutions. I saw no possible
way of getting rid of them, unless it should please God to remove
me to another college. He did so, in a manner contrary to alJ
human expectation. I was elected Fellow of a college where I
knew not one person.” He was aware that many would call
upon him for various reasons, but he had made up his mind to
have no chance acquaintance. He narrowly observed the temper
and behaviour of all who came, and determined that he would
only cultivate the friendship of those who were likely to lead
him on the way to heaven. He did not return the visits of those
who were not of this spirit. Such people, therefore, gradually
left him to himself. When he wrote this account he said that
this had been his invariable rule for about threescore years.*
Wesley behaved as courteously as he could, but he was determined
both to redeem the time and save his own soul. On March 19th,
1727, he tells his mother that the conversation of one or two
friends, of whom he should always speak with gratitude, had
first taken away his relish for most other pleasures. He had
now begun to lose his love for company " the most elegant
entertainment next to books,”—so that, unless the
persons had a religious turn of thought, he felt much better
pleased without them. He was inclined to prefer some more retired
position than he had at Oxford, where he might fix his habits
of mind “before the flexibility of youth was over.”
A school in Yorkshire had lately been offered him, with a good
salary. What charmed him most, however, was the description
of the place which some gentlemen had given him the previous
day. It lay in a little valley, so hemmed in by hills that it
was scarcely accessible. There was no company in the school,
and scarcely any outside. This account, which his visitors thought
would put such a post out of the question, strongly attracted
Wesley. He adds, “I am full of business, but have found
a way to write without taking any time from that. It is but
rising an hour sooner in the morning, and going into company
an hour later in the evening, both which may be done without
any inconvenience.” *
About this time, probably in 1728, he began that system of
early rising which he continued till the end of his life. He
used to awake every night about twelve or one, and remain awake
some time. He felt convinced that he lay longer in bed than
nature required, and procured an alarum which awoke him at seven
next morning, nearly an hour earlier than the previous day.
He still lay awake as usual. Next morning he rose at six, with
the same result. The following night he set his alarum for five,
but he awoke as before. The fourth day be rose at four, and
slept all through the night. He could say, after sixty years,
that he still rose at four o’clock, and that, taking the
year round, he did not lie awake a quarter of an hour together
in a month.t It must be remembered that in later years, after
a long, wearisome ride on a hot day, Wesley would lie down and
sleep for’ ten or fifteen minutes. He would then rise
refreshed for his work. He never could bear to sleep on a soft
bed.
On August 4th, 1727, he left Oxford to assist his father, who
held the small living of Wroote in addition to that of Epworth,
and found it difficult to pay a curate or to get one to his
mind. He had been anxious for some time to have his son with
him. Wesley’s principal work lay at Wroote, whilst his
father stayed at Epworth, but they seem to have made occasional
changes. Wesley went to Westminster to visit his brother Samuel
on August 4th; then be set out for Lincolnshire, where he acted
as his father’s curate until November, 1729.
Wroote was a little village surrounded by bogs, about five
miles from Epworth. The Wesleys seem to have lived there from
1725 until John Wesley came over to help his father. The road
between Epworth and Wroote was so rough that Samuel Wesley felt
that his son could not get from one place to the other without
hazarding his health or life. The journey had to be made by
boat. It was impossible to go afoot or on horseback, because
the waters were out in the Fen Country. The boat took them as
far as Scawsit Bridge; then they walked across the Common to
Epworth. It was by no means a pleasant passage. The water washing
over the side of the boat laid up the Rector in June, 1727,
just before John Wesley came home to help him. During one of
these journeys, in 1728, he also had a
*arrow escape from drowning. The boat was driven by the fierce
stream and wind against another craft, and tilled with water.t
The church at Wroote was a small brick building; the parishioners
were unpolished and heavy. They appear in singularly unattractive
colours in some lines written by Wesley’s clever sister
Hetty
High births and virtue equally they scorn,
As asses dull, on dunghills born;
Impervious as the stones their heads are found,
Their rage and hatred steadfast as the ground.
From its inaccessible position through bogs and floods the
place had been called “Wroote-out-of-England.” The
rude country folk still treasured up the strange stories about
William of Lindholme, the hermit, known as a wizard in league
with the evil one.
Wesley’s work at Wroote had not much immediate fruit.
It is included in his description, “From the year 1725
to 1729 I preached much, but saw no fruit of my labour. Indeed,
it could not be that I should; for I neither laid the foundation
of repentance, nor of believing the Gospel; taking it for granted
that all to whom I preached were believers, and that many of
them needed no repentance.’~•
He made several visits to Oxford during these two years of
parish life. In October, 1727, though suffering from the ague,
which was endemic in that part of Lincoln-shire, he went up
to the University. This journey seems to have been made on election
business, at the request of the Rector of Lincoln College, of
whose kindness he entertained such a lively sense that he used
to say, “I can refuse Dr. Morley nothing.” We find
one other reference to this friend. At the end of January, 1751,
at the pressing request of Dr. Isham, then Rector of Lincoln
College, Wesley went to Oxford to vote for a member of Parliament.
The candidate for whom he voted was not elected, but he did
not regret his journey. “I owe much more than this to
that generous, friendly man, who now rests from his labour.”
t He travelled on horseback, and spent ten days at his college.
The journey was painful, as his ague often made him feel very
ill on the road. On July 27th, 1728, he went up to the University
by way of London, and was ordained priest by Dr. Potter, who
had himself been a Fellow of Lincoln. Next year, on June 16th,
he spent about two months at Oxford, where he found the little
Society of Methodists already meeting together under the leadership
of his brother Charles.
John Wesley’s life. at Wroote was the only experience
he had as an English parish clergyman.’ On April 13th,
1759, he called on Mr. Romley, of Burton, near Epworth, one
of his former parishioners, a lively, sensible man, eighty-three
years old, by whom, he says, “I was much comforted.”
t In September, 1767, after Wesley had preached in the riding-school
at Northampton, to a large. and deeply serious congregation,
he mentions that a lady, who had been one of his parishioners
at Epworth nearly forty years before, waited on him. He took
tea at her house next day.
The quiet life at Wroote was broken in upon by a letter from
Dr. Morley, dated October 2 1st, 1729. He told Wesley that it
was felt necessary, in order to discipline and good government,
that the junior Fellows who were chosen Moderators should personally
attend to the duties of their office unless they could get some
other Fellow to preside for them. Mr. Hutchins had been kind
enough to promise to take Mr. Fenton’s place, so that
he might not be compelled to give up his perpetual curacy; Mr.
Robinson would have supplied Wesley’s, but he had to serve
two cures fourteen miles distant from Oxford, and the roads
for ten miles at least were as bad as those around Epworth.
“We hope,” says the Rector, “it may be as
much for your advantage to reside at college as where you are,
if you take pupils, or can get a curacy in the neighbourhood
of Oxon. Your father may certainly have another curate, though
not so much to his satisfaction; yet we are persuaded that
this will not move him to hinder your return to college, since
the interest of college and obligation to statute requires it.”
This letter brought Wesley back to Oxford, to become the head
of the Methodist movement in the University.
