MARCH 1, Sat. (being Leap-year).-I considered, what difference do I find by an increase of years? I find (1) less activity; I walk slower, particularly up-hill: (2) My memory is not so quick: (3) I cannot read so well by candle-light. But I bless God that all my other powers of body and mind remain just as they were.

 

Sun. 2.[1]- I preached at eleven, at half an hour past two, and at half-hour past five. The first congregation was large, and so was the second; but the third was far the largest, filling every corner of the house. And the power of God seemed to increase with the number of the people; insomuch that in the evening,       

 

MARCH 1, Saturday               

 

 4 Prayed, letter, sermon; 8 tea, together, prayer; 9 Mag., sermon, walk; 1 dinner, within, prayer; 2 

 

         sermon, prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6.30 Heb. x. 31! within! 8 supper, together, prayer; 10.

 

Sunday 2

 

  4.15 Prayed, letters; 7 tea, conversed; 8 Lu. xiii. 23; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 Lu. xiii. 24!     

 

               prayed; 4.30 visited, tea; 5.30, Phil. i. 21! society, prayed, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

while I was applying ‘To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,’ the glory of the Lord seemed to overshadow the con­gregation in an uncommon manner. And I trust the impression then made upon rich and poor will not soon wear off.

 

Mon. 3.-I went on to Bristol, and, having two or three quiet days, finished my sermon upon Conscience.[2] On Tuesday I gave notice of my design to preach on Thursday evening upon (what is now the general topic) Slavery.[3] In consequence of this, on Thursday the house from end to end was filled with high and low, rich and poor.

 

Monday 3

 

4 Prayed, read narrative; 6 Gen. ix. 25, within to many; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, chaise; 11 Brist[ol], on business; 12 select society, on business; 2.30 dinner, conversed, prayer; 4 at Mr. Giff[ord’s], prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6 Heb. x. 31! 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 4

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, together, prayer; 9 sermon; 12 walk, on business; 1dinner, conversed, prayer; 3 sermon; 5 tea, prayed; 6.30 Heb. ii. I! the leaders; 8 at Mr. Giff[ord]’s, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 5

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, sermon; 12 visited; 1 at Mr. Stoc[k’s], dinner, sermon; 5 prayed, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Lu. xiii. 23, on business, prayed; 8 supper, together, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 6

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, together, prayer; 9 sermon; 12 on business; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 letters; 5 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed; 6.30 Gen. ix. 27, the bands, at Mr. John[son]’s; 8 conversed, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

I preached on that ancient prophecy, ‘God shall enlarge Japhet. And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.’ About the middle of the discourse, while there was on every side attention still as night, a vehement noise arose, none could tell why, and shot like lightning through the whole congregation. The terror and confusion were inexpressible. You might have imagined it was a city taken by storm. The people rushed upon each other with the utmost violence; the benches were broke in pieces, and nine-tenths of the congregation appeared to be struck with the same panic. In about six minutes the storm ceased, almost as suddenly as it rose, and, all being calm, I went on without the least interruption.

 

It was the strangest incident of the kind I ever remember; and I believe none can account for it without supposing some preternatural influence. Satan fought, lest his kingdom should be delivered up. We set Friday apart as a day of fasting and prayer that God would remember those poor outcasts of men; and (what seems impossible with men, considering the wealth and power of their oppressors) make a way for them to escape, and break their chains in sunder.

 

Fri: 7.[4]-I went over to Kingswood School, and found everything there in excellent order.

 

Friday 7

 

4 Prayed, Matt. vi. 17, prayer; 6.30 within, letters; 12 females; 1 prayer; 2 dinner, conversed; 3.30 chaise, Rose Green, tea, conversed, prayer, chaise; 5 at the School, within, prayed, read; 8.30 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.45.

 

Saturday 8

 

4 Prayed, the children; 6 tea, [-], in the chaise; 8 at Miss J[ohnson’s], sermon, Journal; 12 on business; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer, visited some; 4 prayed, tea, conversed, on business; 7.30 Pen[ry]; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Sun. 9.-I preached at the room morning and afternoon (Mr. Collins reading prayers), and about two at the school, though the house would very ill contain the congregation. 

 

Monday the 10th,[5] and the three following days, I visited the classes, which contained (after many added, and many lost or removed) a little more than nine hundred members. I wonder that, with such preachers,[6] there is so little increase. Dublin has outrun Bristol already; so will Manchester, Sheffield, and even Birmingham soon, unless they stir themselves up before the Lord.

 

Wed. 12.-I preached in the evening at a new place, in Little George Street, the poorest part of the city,[7] and great was our rejoicing in the Lord among this willing people.[8]

 

Sunday 9

 

4 Prayed, writ narrative, tea, conversed, on business; 9.30 prayers, Heb. ix. 13! communion, coach, at the School; 12.15 dinner; 2 Mark ix. 23, coach, sleep, tea, prayed; 5 Mark ix. 23; 6 society, the singers, supper, together, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 10

 

4 Prayed, I Pet. i. 9! on business, class; 8 tea, class; 1 dinner, class; 4.30 prayed, tea; 6.30 Heb. xi. I, at brother Bulgin’s, supper, con­versed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 11

 

4 Prayed, letter, class; 8 tea, prayer, class; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 class, letter, tea, conversed, prayed; 6.30 Jam. ii. 22! Supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Ja. ii. 22. 

 

Wednesday 12

 

4 Prayed, letter; 6 class; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 class; 1 dinner; 2 class; 4 prayed, tea, conversed; 6 George Street, 2 Cor. viii. 9! visited, at brother Bulgin’s; 8 supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

­

 

Sat. 15.-In the evening, having no other time, I preached once more in Temple Church. I had no thought of meddling with the controversy which has lately pestered this city till I read those words in the Second Lesson which threw me full upon it, ‘Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction

 

from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.’ I then thought it my duty to speak dearly and strongly upon that head.[9]

 

Sun. 16.[10]-I was invited by the, mayor, Mr. Edgar,[11] to

 

Thursday 13

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 class; 11 on business, Conversed, the coach, at Edw[ards], dinner, within; 3 walk, within to some, Su K., [cipher] *, prayed, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 prayed; 6.30 Isa xl. I! the bands, at Mr. Cas[tleman’s], supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 14

 

4 Prayed, read; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters; 12 texts; 2.15dinner, conversed, prayer; 3.30 writ, on   

 

         business, prayer; 5 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed;  5.30 Phil. iii. 13, at Mr. Castl[eman’s], supper, 

 

         with­in, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 15

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 sermon, on business; 1.15 dinner, conversed, prayer, visited; 3 on business, within, prayed.; 5 at Mr. Easterb[rook’s], tea, conversed; 6 prayers, 2 Thes. i. 9, Pen[ry], at Mr. Powna[l’s]; 8 supper, conversed, prayer, on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 16

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, conversed, sermon; 11, Mayor’s Chapel, prayers, Lu. xvi. 31! dinner; 3 on business; 4 tea, conversed, prayed; 5 Lu. xvi. 31! society, the singers; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

preach in his chapel,[12] and afterwards to dine with him at the Mansion House. Most of the aldermen were at church, and a multitude of high and low; to whom I explained and applied that awful passage of Scripture, the history of Dives and Lazarus.

 

Mon. 17.[13]-I began my northern journey in a mild, lovely morning. In the evening I preached to so crowded an audience at Stroud[14] as I have not seen there for some years.

 

Tues. 18.-I preached in Painswick at ten. Here also we wanted room for the audience, and all were still as night. At six in the evening I began at Gloucester. Here, it seems, the scandal of the cross (such is the will of God) is ceased. High and low, rich and poor, flock together, and seem to devour the word. I preached on building upon a rock, and spoke with all plainness. Many, I believe, were cut to the heart; for it was a day of the Lord’s power.

 

Monday 17

 

4 Prayed, letters; 5.30 chaise; 8.30 Newport [near Berkeley], tea, con­versed, prayer; 9.30 chaise; 11 visited; 11.30 chaise; 12.30 Stroud, letters; 1.15 dinner, conversed, prayer, letters, prayed; 5 tea, con­versed, prayer; 6 I Pet. i. 9! society, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 18

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, letters; 11 chaise; 12 Painsw[ick], Lu. xvi. 31! dinner; 2.30 chaise; 4 Glou[ce]ster, letter, tea; 5 prayed; 6 Matt. vii. 24! Society; 8 supper, together, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wed. 19.[15]-About noon I preached at Tewkesbury, where also, notwithstanding the market, the house was over-filled; and the people were deeply attentive.

 

The work of God goes on steadily here. More and more are continually convinced, and converted to God. But the preaching-house is far too small, so that many who came could not get in. We went to Worcester in the afternoon, where also the house is far too small for the congregation. The Methodists here have by well-doing utterly put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; so that they are now abundantly more in danger by honour than by dishonour.

 

Thur. 20.[16]-I  went to Stourport. Twenty years ago there 

 

Wednesday 19

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, on business; 9.30 chaise; 11.30 Tewkesb[ury], Jo. ix 4! 1 dinner, conversed; 2 chaise; 4.30 Worc[ester], tea, conversed, prayed; 6 Jo. ix. 4! Society; 8 supper;

 

        9 prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 20

 

5 Prayed, Isa. xl. I, on business, letter; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, writ texts, accounts; 1 dinner, within, prayer; 2.30 writ narrative; 4.30 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed, visited; 6 Heb. x. 31! the bands;

 

        8 supper! prayer; 9.30

 

­was but one house here, now there are two or three streets; and, as the trade swiftly increases, it will probably grow into a considerable town.[17] A few years since[18]  Mr. Cowell largely contributed to the building of a preaching-house here, in which both Calvinists and Arminians might preach. But when it was finished, the Arminian preachers were totally excluded. Rather than go to law, Mr. Cowell built another house,[19] both larger and more convenient. I preached there at noon to a large congregation, but to a much larger in the evening. Several clergymen were present, and were as attentive as any of the people. Probably there will be a deep work of God at this place.

 

Sat. 22.-I breakfasted at Mr. Pochim Lister’s,[20] in Kidder­minster, with a few very serious and pious friends. In the evening we had a Sunday congregation at Birmingham. Here there is a glorious increase of the work of God. The society is risen to above eight hundred; so that it is at present inferior to none in England, except those in London and Bristol.

 

Friday 21

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 7 within, tea, visited; 9 chaise; 11 Stourport, sermon; 12 Heb. ix. 13! 1 within, dinner, conversed; 2 sermon; 4 prayed, tea; 6 I Cor. i. 24! communion; 8 supper, conversed; 9 prayer; 9.30.

 

Phil. iii. 13.

 

Saturday 22

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 6.30 chaise; 7.15 Kidderm[inster], tea, within, prayer; 9 chaise; 11.30 Quinto[n]; 12 prayer, chaise; 1 Birm[ingham], dinner, conversed, letters; 4.15 prayed, tea, conversed; 6 prayed, Phil. iii. 13; 8 supper, together, prayer, on business; 9.30.

 

Sun. 23.-We were greatly straitened for room, many being obliged to go away. But I believe all that could squeeze in foul1d it good to be there; for, both in the morning and after­noon, the power of God was present to heal. And so indeed it was on the two following days; particularly on Tuesday evening, while I explained ‘Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?’

 

Wed. 26.-I went on to Wednesbury, the mother-society of Staffordshire. But few of the old standers[21]  are left: I think but three, out of three hundred and fifteen. However, a new generation is sprung up, though hardly equal to the former.

 

Thur. 27.-About noon I preached at Dudley, and with much liberty of spirit; but with far more at Wolverhampton in the evening, the new house being sufficiently crowded.

 

Easter Day

 

4 Prayed, letters; 7 tea, conversed, prayer; 8 Lu. xxiv. 34, sermon; 10 prayers, communion; 1.45 dinner; 

 

       3 letter, within; 5 tea, conversed; 6 Rom. viii. 33, society; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 24

 

 4 Prayed, letters, tea, within; 8 Lu. xxiv. 26; 9 writ sermon, within to some; 12 on business, visited;   

 

          1.15 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.45 sermon; 4 prayed, tea; 6 I Pet. i.3, etc., the leaders; 8 supper,    

 

          conversed, prayer; 9.30.                     

 

Tuesday 25

 

4 Prayed, letters; 70 tea, conversed, prayer; 8 Col. iii. I, etc., select society, christened; 10 sermon, read narrative; 1 dinner, together, prayer; 2.30 sermon, prayed; 5 tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Jam. ii. 22! the bands; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 26

 

4 Prayed, 2 Cor. v. 15, Turn[er]; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, writ narrative, conversed, prayer; 10 chaise; 11 Wednesb[ury], Turner; 1 dinner, Turner, prayed, tea, conversed; 6 Lu. xxiv. 34! society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 27

 

4 Prayed, Turner; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, Turner; 10.30 chaise; 11.30 Dudley, within! 122 Cor. v. 19; 1 

 

         dinner; 2 chaise; 3.15 W[olver] hampton; 3.30 prayed, Turner, tea; 6 Lu. xiii 23! supper, prayer, 

 

          9.30.

 

What a den of lions was this town for many years! But now, it seems, the last will be first.[22]

 

Fri. 28. - We came to our dear friends at Madeley.[23] Mrs. Fletcher’s health is surprisingly mended; and one might take her nephew for a believer of seven years’ standing, he seems so well established in the faith of the gospel. The congregation was surprisingly large in the evening, and great was their solemn joy while, I applied ‘When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.’

 

Friday 28

 

4 Prayed, Turner; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 chaise; 12.30 Madeley, read narrative; 1.30 dinner, conversed; 3 writ narrative, prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6 prayers, Col. iii. I, etc., supper, conversed; 9.30 prayer; 10.

 

Sat. 29.[24] -Having no other time, I went over to Salop and spent an afternoon very agreeably. The room was so crowded in the evening as I never saw it before; perhaps the more by reason of two poor wretches who were executed in the afternoon. It was given me to speak strong words, such as made the stout­hearted tremble. Surely there is now, if there never was before a day of salvation to this town also.          

 

Sun. 30.-I returned to Madeley; but we were distressed by the large concourse of people. It was too cold to stand abroad; and the church could in nowise contain the congrega­tion. But we could not help it: so as many as could got in; the rest stood without, or went away. The Epistle led me to preach on the ‘Three that bear record in heaven,’ which proved seasonable for Mrs. Fletcher. In the afternoon I preached on ‘This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.’

 

Mon. 31.-About noon[25] I preached at Stafford to a large and serious congregation, and about six in the evening at Lane End [Longton]. Our chapel not being able to contain one-third of the congregation, they stood at the front of Mr. Myatt’s house,[26] where they could all hear perfectly; and, though the wind was high and extremely cold, none seemed to regard it.

 

Saturday 29

 

4.15 Prayed, writ narrative, Heb. xii. I, etc., prayer; 8 tea, conversed; 8.30 chaise; 9 Colebrook Dale, I Pet. i. 3, etc.; 10 chaise; 12.15 Salop, within; 1 writ narrative, read; 2 dinner, within; 3.30 read narrative, tea; 6 2 Cor. vi. I, supper, on business, prayer; 9.30.

 

Sunday 30

 

4 Prayed, tea; 6.30 chaise, [cipher] *; 9.30 Madeley, on business; 10 on business; 11 prayers; 12 I Jo. v. 7; 1 dinner, sleep, read narrative, prayers; I Jo. v. 11! tea, conversed; 5 prayed; 6 writ; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.45.

 

Monday 31

 

4 Prayed, on business, prayer, within, tea; 8.30 at Mr. York’s, tea, con­versed, prayer; 9.30 chaise; 1 Staff[ord], Isa. xxiv. 8! dinner, chaise; 5.30 Lane end, tea; 6 I Sam. xx. 3! Weston; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

---

 

[1] On this day he wrote to his brother an affectionate letter from Bath. He still believed that God had little more for his brother to do; ‘that is provided you now take up your cross (for that it frequently must be), and go out, at least an hour in a day. I would not blame you, if it were two or three. Never mind the expense. I can make that up. You shall not die to save charges. I shall shortly have a word to say to Charles [his nephew] or his brother, or both. Peace be with all your spirits’ (Jackson’s Life of Charles Wesley, vol. ii. P.438)

 

       [2] Works, vol. vii. Sermon CV, suggested by a treatise translated from the French of M. Placatt, in which he twice quotes from his ‘mother’s father,’ Dr. Annesley,  ‘who,’ he says, ‘was rector of the parish of Cripplegate.’ The Annesley quotation (two pages) with which the sermon closes is a fine example of the Annesley- Wesley teaching on Holiness. On March 5 he writes to Charles again:

 

I hope you keep to your rule of going out every day, although it may sometimes be a cross. Keep to this but one month, and I am persuaded you will be as well as you was at this time twelvemonth. If I adventure to give you one more advice, it would be this, ‘Be master of your own house.’ If you fly, they pursue. But stand firm, and you will carry your point.

 

It is evident that Charles’s family had little faith in ‘Uncle John’s’ prescription for their father, especially in the matter of going out (Jackson’s Life of Charles Wesley, vol. ii. P. 438).

 

[3] The Methodists, following their leader, took a noble part in the great Emancipation movement. See Wesley Studies, p. 190.

 

[4] He wrote to his niece, Sally Wesley, still further prescribing, but entreating that her father may see Dr. Whitehead, and urging that in the day-time he should lie in bed as little as possible, lest he should hinder his sleeping at night. It is in this letter that he advises Sally to tell her brothers that their tenderly ­respectful behaviour to their father (even to asking his pardon, if in anything they have offended him) will be the best cordial for him under heaven’ (Jackson’s Life of C. Wesley, vol. ii. p. 439).

 

[5] On March 11 he wrote from Bath to Miss Mallet (Taft’s Holy Women, p. 86).

 

[6] The following were the appointments for three years:                

 

 1785. S. Bradburn, John Murlin, Jeremiah Brettell.

 

 1786. John Valton, Chr. Watkins, John Pritchard, Thomas Tennant.

 

 1787. John Valton, Supernumerary, John Broadbent, B. Rhodes, Jeremiah                Brettell.

 

[7] Cf. Journal for Sept. 19, 1788. On p. 80 of Matthew’s Directory, dated 1793-4, a chapel ‘belonging to Mr. Wesley’s connexion’ is mentioned in George Street. A History of the Origin and Progress of the Sunday Schools under the Patronage of the Bristol Methodist Sunday School Society, published in 1816, states that the first school was opened in 1804 in  ‘the little chapel in George Street.’ To-day, the Rev. W. Wakinshaw says, we can find no trace of the chapel, nor can its site be located.

 

[8] On March 13 he wrote from Bristol to Samuel Bradburn, urgently advising treatment for Charles (Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 525).

 

[9] The vestry of Temple Church had been the scene of a remarkable case of supposed exorcism. The victim of in­dwelling demons, as some believed, was George Lukins, said by sceptical persons to be an impostor with a ventriloquistic gift. The exorcists were the Rev. Mr. Easterbrook, vicar of Temple Church, and the Methodist preachers then stationed in Bristol (the list is given in the Arm. Mag. 1789, p. 206), and other persons. The affair caused great contention in the city. This was the controversy to which Wesley refers in the text. See Pawlyn’s Meth. in Bristol, p.128. For Rev. Joseph Easterbrook’s account of George Lukins see Arm. Mag. 1789, pp. 155 ff.; also, for Valton’s account, Wesley’s Veterans, vol. vi. pp., 107-8, or E.M.P. vol. vi. pp. 127-8. A detailed account of the case was published in the W.H.S. by the Rev H. J. Foster, vol. ii. p. 39.

 

[10] He wrote from Bristol to his nephew Charles (Meth. Rec. Jan. 26, 1899)

 

[11] Alexander Edgar, son-in-law of Alderman Foy.

 

[12] St. Mark’s, in College Green, called the Mayor’s Chapel. 

 

[13] He wrote his last letter to his brother:

 

DEAR BROTHER,-I am just setting out on my northern journey, but must snatch time to write two or three lines. I stand and admire the wise and gracious dispensations of divine Providence! Never was there before so loud a call to all that are under your roof. If they have not hitherto suffi­ciently regarded either you or the God of their fathers, what is more calculated to convince them than to see you hovering so long upon the borders of the grave? And I verily believe, if they receive the admonition, God will raise you up again. I know you have the sentence of death in yourself; so had I more than twelve years ago. I know nature is utterly exhausted. But is not nature subject to His word? I do not depend upon physicians, but upon Him that raiseth the dead. Only let your whole family stir themselves up, and be instant in prayer; then I have only to say to each:

 

 ‘If thou canst believe thou shalt see the Glory of God!’

 

 ‘Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.’

 

 (Jackson’s Life of Charles Wesley, vol. ii. P. 440.)

 

[14] From Stroud on the same day he wrote to Adam Clarke, still in the Channel Islands, through which the Methodists have spread themselves (new ed. Wesley Letters).                 

 

[15] On March 19 he wrote from Gloucester to William Black, one of his missionaries in Nova Scotia. See Tyer­man’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 541, quoted from Black’s Memoirs, p. 219. A brief undated letter was also written about this time to a remarkable child of twelve, Agnes Collinson. She was the third daughter of Mr. Edward Collinson (see above, p. 349), born Aug. 31, 1775; received her first society ticket from Wes­ley, 1789; married Joseph Bulmer, of London, in 1793; published Messiah’s Kingdom, a poem in ten books; and wrote The Memoirs of Mrs. Mortimer(Elizabeth Ritchie). Her best-known hymn, ‘Thou who hast in Zion laid,’ was Written for the laying of the foundation-stone of Oxford Road Chapel, Manchester (1825). It was published in the new Supplement added to the Methodist Hymn-Book in 1830 (No. 737), was retained in the Collection of 1876 as No. 989, but is not included in the Methodist Hymn-Book (1904). See Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 192;

 

Stevenson’s Methodist Hymn-Book and its Associations; W.M. Mag. 1840, P. 801; and Christopher’s Poets of Methodism, p.268.

 

[16] On the 20th he wrote to his niece, Sarah Wesley, giving her various remedies for her father. He still hoped for his brother’s recovery. The life of the invalid, however, was slowly ebbing away. It must have been about this time, when he could no longer hold the pen, that Charles Wesley dictated to his wife the verse;

 

In age and feebleness extreme,

 

Who shall a helpless worm redeem?

 

Jesus, my only hope Thou art, 

 

Strength of my failing flesh and heart; 

 

O could I catch a smile from Thee,

 

 And drop into eternity!

 

It was for this verse that Sir Hubert Parry composed ‘Marylebone,’ one of the finest hymn-tunes in the Methodist Hymn-Book of 1904 (No. 821). See WH.S. vol. iv. p. 185 (facsimile of the manuscript of the hymn, which Mrs. Charles Wesley wrote at her husband’s dictation).

 

[17] See Dugdale’s England and Wales Delineated, vol. ix. p. 1430, for the rapid growth of this town.

 

[18] In 1781 Mr. Cowell was a local coal merchant, who had probably heard Wesley preach elsewhere. 

 

[19] Near the present Wesleyan chapel, and in a part of the same field. The central portion of the chapel now in use at Stour­port is said to be a part of the original house erected by Mr. Cowell. See above, March 23, 1787, and below, March 18, 1790. For early Methodism in Stourport, see Meth. Rec. April 26, 1906.

 

[20] A descendant of Mr. Lister was afterwards vicar of The Leigh in Glou­cestershire.

 

[21] The expression is in common use in South Staffordshire. In forestry a ‘stander’ is a tree left after the felling of its neighbours.            

 

[22] In those wild days Wesley had been struck by a stone flung by Moseley, a young locksmith, causing blood to flow down his face. The memory of the vicious act pursued him. He was after­wards soundly converted in ‘the new house,’ Noah’s Ark Chapel, and con­tinued a faithful Methodist until his death at the age of ninety. See Meth. Rec. April 3, 1902.

 

[23] Mrs. Fletcher writes in her Journal (April 3, 1788):

 

Last Friday Mr. Wesley came. It was a time of hurry, but also of profit. . . . I could not but discern a great change. His soul seems far more sunk into God. Each sermon was indeed spirit and life. In preaching on the Trinity, he observed, it was our duty to believe according to the Word of God: but We Were not called to comprehend; that was impossible. Bring me, said he, a worm that can comprehend a man; I will show you a man that Can comprehend God. He observed that, If three candles were burning in a room, the light was but one. (Life of Mrs. Fletcher; by Henry Moore, p. 251)

 

On March 29 Charles Wesley died in his house in Chesterfield Street, Marylebone. Samuel Bradburn, who attended him to the last, described his death in a letter to Samuel Bardsley. He knew him intimately and in his death realized the ‘great loss of a true friend’ : ­

 

I visited him [he writes] often in his illness, and Sat up with him all night, the last but one of his life. He had no disorder but old age. He had very little pain. His mind was as calm as a summer evening. His soul was formed for friendship in affliction. He was courteous without dissimulation, and honest without vulgar roughness. He was truly a great scholar, without pedantic ostentation; a great Christian, without pompous singularity; a great divine, without contempt of the meanest of his brethren.

 

Bradburn preached his funeral sermon at West Street, and at City Road Chapel, on Sunday April 6, to  ‘an inconceivable concourse of people,’ from 2 Sam. iii. 38: ‘A prince and a great man is fallen this day in Israel.’

 

It was afterwards ascertained that, at the very moment when his brother fell on sleep, John Wesley and his congregation in Shropshire were singing Charles Wesley’s hymn:      

 

                                Come, let us join our friends above 

 

                                     That, have obtained the prize.

 

Bradburn’s letter announcing the death was misdirected.        It did not reach Wesley till April 4, the day before the burial. He wrote immediately to his sister-in-law. (Jackson’s Life of Charles Wesley, vol. ii. p. 442; Meth. Mag. 1817, p. 464; Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 526; Telford’s Life of Charles Wesley, P.290.) See Sarah Wesley’s account of her father’s death in a letter to her uncle John, in Arm, Mag. 1788, p. 407.

 

[24]             He wrote from Madeley to Miss Lewis (Works, vol. xiii. p. 115).

 

[25]             Earlier editions read ‘About one I preached,’ which the Diary confirms.

 

[26]             See W.H.S. vol. vi. p. 98; also below, March 29, 1790.