THE JOURNAL

 

1784. JULY 18, Sun.—I preached, morning and afternoon, in Bingley church; but it would not near contain the congregation. Before service I stepped into the Sunday school,[1] which contains two hundred and forty children taught every Sunday by several masters, and superintended by the curate. So many children in one parish are restrained from open, sin, and taught a little good manners, at least, as well as to read the Bible. I find these schools springing up wherever I go. Perhaps God may have a deeper end therein than men are aware of. Who knows but some of these schools may become nurseries for Christians?[2]

 

Sunday 18

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, chaise, Bingl[ey]; 10.15 prayers, Matt. V. 20! 1 at Mr.Hartl[ey’s], dinner, conversed; 2.30 prayers, Psa. xc. 12, chaise, Keighl[ey]; 5.30 2 Jo. 8! society, within, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.15.

 

Monday 19

 

4 Prayed, Judg. i. 27, letters; 7.30 tea, conversed, prayed, letter; 10 chaise, with E[lizabeth] R[itchie]; 12 Baildon, dinner; 1 Matt. xv. 28, chaise; 4 Otl[ey], letters; 5 prayed; 6 Matt. iv. 10! society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tues. 20. -Though it rained all day, in the morning we had a good congregation[3] at five.

 

Wed. 21.-I met the society, and found but one or two of the original members, most of them being gone to Abraham’s bosom. I was a little surprised to find that only two or three of the rest had stood fast in the glorious liberty. But, indeed, most of them recovered their loss four years ago.

 

Thur. 22-Although it rained, yet I met the congregation in the morning and most of them were athirst for full salvation.

 

Fri. 23[4].-Abundance of people were present at five in the morning, and, such a company of children as I have hardly seen in England.

 

Tuesday 20

 

4 Prayed, 2 Cor. V. 1- 4, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 letters; 12.45 dinner, conversed; 2 writ Mag.; 4 prayed; 5 at Mr. Hartl[ey’s]; tea, conversed, prayer; 6.30 Col. 1. 10! 7 the bands, supper, prayer, on business; 9.15.

 

Wednesday 21

 

4 Prayed, I Pet. i. 9, select society, Mag.; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 Mag.; 10.30 chaise; 11.30 Parkg[ate], Dr. Coke, etc.; 1.30 dinner; 2.30 Conf[erence]; 4 prayed, tea, conversed; 5.30 chaise; 6 Mark i. 15! society, chaise, supper, conversed; 9.30.

 

Thursday 22

 

4 Prayed, 2 Cor. iv. 18! Conf[erencel; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 writ Answer to Appeal[5]; 1 dinner, writ Answer; 4 garden, tea, con­versed, prayed, chaise; 6 Isa. lix. I, 2 1 7.30 Conf[erence ; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 23

 

4 Prayed, chaise, Mark ix. 23! letters; tea, conversed, prayer, letters; 10 conversed; 10.30 chaise ; 12 Ecclesa[l], dinner, T. R., etc., in talk; 1 Acts xi. 261 chaise; 2.30 Brad[ford]; 3 Conf[erence]; 4.30 tea, conversed, prayed, Acts xxii. 16, Matt. xxii. 27, society, supper, prayer, on business; 9.30.

 

Saturday 24

 

4 Prayed, Matt. Xxii. 29! select society, Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, Conf[erence]; 10.30   

 

              chaise; 1 Da[w] Green, dinner, Con­f[erence], prayed; 4.15 walk; 5 Hang[ing] Heaton, tea,

 

prayed, Acts xxii. 16! society! supper, conversed, prayer, on business; 9.30.

 

Sat. 24.-In the evening I went to Hanging Heaton, a little village[6] near Dewsbury. Some months since, an un­common work of God broke out here. The whole town was in a flame. There are now about two hundred in the society, and very few that do not know God. I was obliged to preach abroad, by the multitude that flocked together; and many of them found that God was there, to their unspeakable comfort.

 

Sun. 25[7]-    I preached to several thousands at Birstall, and to at least as many at Leeds.

 

Tues. 27.-Our Conference[8] began, at which four of our brethren, after long debate (in which Mr. Fletcher took much pains), acknowledged their fault, and all that was past was forgotten.

 

Sunday 25

 

4 Prayed, Conf[erence]; 6.30 walk; 7 Da[w] Gr[een], tea, conversed; 8 Matt.viii.2! 9.30 walk; 11 Birstal[l],Conf[erence], dinner, Acts ix. 31! 2.15 chaise; 3.30 Leeds, at Mr. Hey’s, in talk, Rev. xx. 12! society, on business, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday the 29th being the public Thanksgiving Day[9], as there was not room for us in the old church, I read prayers, as well as preached, at our room.

 

Monday 26

 

4 Prayed, Conf[erence]; 7.30 Jam. iii. 17, tea, conversed, writ letters; 1.45 dinner, conversed,    

 

         letters; 5 at brother Bradb[urn’s], tea, con­versed, prayer; 6 Psa. lxii. I, within to many; 8      

 

         supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 27

 

4 Prayed, letters; 6Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed, letter; 9 Conf[erence]; 12 letters 1 dinner, 

 

        conversed; 2 Conf[erence], writ letters; 5 tea, conversed, prayed; 6 Lu. xii. 7! within to   

 

        many; 8.30 Supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 28

 

4 Prayed, writ Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed; 9 Conf[erence]; 12 writ narrative; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 Conf[erence] ; 430 writ narrative, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Matt. xxii. 37 ![10] on business, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 29

 

4       Prayed, writ narrative, Conf[erence], writ narrative; 8 tea, writ narrative; to prayers, 1 Cor. xiii., communion; 1.30 dinner; 2.45 Con[ference]; 5 tea, conversed, letter, prayed; 6 Mat. xxii. 39; 8 writ narrative supper, read, prayer; 9,30.

 

I admired the whole Service for the day. The prayers, scriptures, and every part of it, pointed at one thing: ‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.’ Having five clergymen[11]  to assist me, we administered the Lord’s Supper, as was supposed, to sixteen or seventeen hundred persons.[12]

 

Friday 30

 

4 Prayed, letters; 6 Conf[erence]; 8 tea, letters; 9 Conf[erence]; 12 letters; 1 at Mr. Appleb[y]’s, 

 

        dinner, conversed; 2 Conf[erence]; 5 tea, conversed, on business, letters; 8 supper, conversed,   

 

         prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 31

 

4 Prayed, letters; 6 Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed; 9 Conf[erence]; 12 within to many; 1 at Mr.  

 

         Hey’s, dinner, conversed; 2 Conf[erence], writ letters; 5 tea, conversed; 6 prayed, letters; 8 

 

         supper, within, prayer, on business; 9.45.

---

 

[1] The date of the foundation of this Sunday school, one of the first in Eng­land, is June 1784, one month before Wesley’s visit. It was undenominational, and was supported by public subscrip­tions. Mr. John White was upper-master with a stipend of 2s. 6d. per Sunday. Mr. Jeremiah Briggs was under-master with a salary of 2s. per Sunday; and the assistant masters, John Longbottom and Solomon Clarke, at 1s per Sunday. The school was conducted from April 1 to Oct. 1 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and during the winter from 9 to 4 o’clock. See Meth. Rec. Winter No., 1893, p. 64; W.H.S. vol. iv p. 32; and Thomas Marriott’s article on the Sunday schools of Methodism in former days, W.M. Mag. 1846, p. 561.

 

[2] In the Arm. Mag. for 1785, p. 41, Wesley inserted a letter by Robert Raikes giving ‘An Account of the Sunday-Charity Schools lately begun in various parts of England.’

 

[3] At Otley (see Diary, 19th).

 

[4] He wrote to Arthur Keene, his friend and host in Dublin. (W.H.S. vol. viii. p.17.)

 

[5] This was John Hampson’s ‘Appeal 2  against the Deed of Declaration (Smith’s Hist. of       

 

Meth. i. 492).   

   

[6] John Valton, in his manuscript diary, says: ‘As we and Valton] walked up the village many of the people met him and very lovingly welcomed him into the town.’

 

[7] He walked from Hanging Heaton back to Dawgreen, and preached there, before walking on to Birstall, three and a half miles, where also he preached; but many could not hear, apparently because the congregation was so large. At Leeds thousands gathered, to whom he preached in a field adjoining the chapel.

 

[8] The all-important question at this Conference was the Deed of Declaration, by which Wesley defined the ‘Confer­ence,’ and provided means for its perpetuation. See above, vol. vi. p. 481; and below, App. xxxi. vol. viii. The manner in which the Deed was devised and executed, and the names selected for the constitution of the first Legal Conference, gave offence to some. The scene in the Conference when Fletcher intervened is described by Atmore (see his MS. Memoir, quoted in Richmond interleaved journal): 

 

Never while memory holds a seat in my breast shall I forget what ardour and earnestness he (Fletcher) expostulated, even on his knees, both with Mr. Wesley and the Preachers. To the former he said: ‘My father, my father! They are your children!’ To the latter: ‘My brethren, my brethren! He is your father!’ And then portraying the work in which they were unitedly engaged, he fell again on his knees, and prayed with such fervour and devotion that the whole Conference was bathed in tears, and many sobbed aloud. Thus were the preachers, except in the case of one or two individuals who left the Connexion, subdued and reconciled to the glory of God and of His gospel. (See also Meth.. Mag. 1845, pp. 12, 13.)

 

It is difficult to say how many sermons were preached in connexion with this memorable Conference. The memoirs and correspondence of the times show how great importance was attached to the pulpit and outdoor addresses of the leaders, especially of Wesley, Fletcher, and Coke, whilst the discrepancies that occasionally occur in the records are themselves a silent testimony to the intense excitement which prevailed. The crisis passed over without any other immediate consequence than the retirement of the principal opponents to the Deed of Declaration, namely, the two Hampsons, Joseph Pilmoor, and John Atlay. Tyerman includes William Eels, but he did not retire until 1788. It has been argued that Wesley might have avoided trouble and division if he had included in the Deed the names of all the preachers in full connexion within the sixty-nine circuits of the three kingdoms. They only numbered at that time 170. Shortly after the Conference, in March s785, Wesley issued a document which he hoped might allay the excitement; it is entitled Thoughts upon some Late Occurrences. See Arm. Mag. 1785, p. 267. More important still, he wrote a brief letter which was entrusted to Joseph Bradford for communication to the first Conference that met after his (Wesley’s) death. See Myles’s Chrono­logical History, p. 201. It was this letter that secured for all the preachers in full connexion every privilege enjoyed by members of the Legal Hundred, ex­cept the formal act of endorsement which legalizes the acts, decisions, ordinations, and expulsions of the Conference. For this Conference see Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p.417.

 

[9] Treaties of peace had been recently signed at Paris between Britain, the United States, and Holland, and in connexion with these events a Royal Proclamation was issued on July 2 of this year commanding that ‘a General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for these His mercies be observed throughout England, Wales, and the town of Berwick-on-Tweed’ on July 29. (Gentleman’s Mag. 1784, p. 552.)

 

[10] A Methodist Sermon Register of the Eighteenth Century’ (see W.H.S. vol. ix. p. 192) confirms most of the diary text entries at this time, but gives ‘Mark xii. 30’ as the text from which Wesley preached on the 28th.

 

[11] They were Dr. Coke, John Fletcher, Richard Dillon, Cornelius Bayley, and David Simpson.

 

[12] On July 31 he wrote from Leeds to Miss Frances Godfrey of Gainsborough (Works, vol. xiii. p. 42).