MAY 1, Thur.-The congregation at five was exceeding large, coming from many miles round; but that at Shelley,[1] a lone place six or seven miles from Huddersfield, where I was constrained to preach in the open air at nine, was six or seven times larger-indeed, the largest I have seen since I left Manchester-and the power of God was eminently present, both to wound and to heal.

 

MAY 1, Thursday

 

4 Prayed, Isa. Ivii. 1, 2, tea, conversed; 7 chaise; 8.30 Shelley, 2 Cor. vi. I! 10 chaise; 1 Wakef[ield], sermon; 2 dinner; 3 sermon, prayed, tea, conversed; 6 Matt. vii. 24; 7 society; 8 supper, con­versed, prayer; 9.30.

 

I believe the congregation at Wakefield in the evening was larger even than this; and the verdure of the trees, the smoothness of the meadow, the calmness of the evening, and the stillness of the whole congregation made it a delightful sight.

 

Fri. 2. -I went on to Bradford. I feared the jars which had been here would have lessened the congregation, but it was as large as ever I remember it on a week-day, and as deeply attentive as ever. A large number attended again at five in the morning.[2] In the afternoon I spent some hours with the trustees of Eccleshill house; but I might as well have talked to so many posts.[3] In the evening we had a lovely congre­gation again, to whom I explained the former part of Rev. xiv. These had ears to hear, and many of them rejoiced with joy full of glory.

 

Friday 2

 

4 Prayed, Isai. i. 3! sermon; 8 tea, prayer; 9 chaise; 11.30 Bradford, sermon; 1 dinner; 2 sermon; 5 tea, conversed; 6 Psa. cxlvi. 16 [sic] [-]; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 3

 

4 Prayed, Heb. ii. 3, accounts, writ narrative; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, Mag.; 1 dinner, conversed; 2 the Trustees, etc., tea, conversed, prayed; 6.15 Rev. xiv. I, etc.; 7 society, supper, conversed, prayer, on business; 9.30.

 

Sun. 4. -It was not without extreme difficulty that we could get into the church; but it was worth all the labour. I strongly applied those words in the Epistle for the day, ‘The end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.’ It seemed as if the whole congregation was moved. I believe that hour will not soon be forgotten.

 

The concourse of people at Birstall, about four, was greater than ever was seen there before; and, the wind being very high, it was feared not half of them would be able to hear; but God was better to them than their fears. Afterwards we found that all could hear distinctly; so, if they hear no more, I am clear of their blood. I have declared to them the whole counsel of God.[4]

 

Mon. 5. -About nine I preached to the loving people at Morley on I Pet. i. 3, and then went forward to Leeds, where (Mr. Hey having sent me word that it was not convenient for him to receive me) Mr. Floyd, and everyone in his house, received me with all gladness.

 

Sunday 4

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, on business; 10.15 prayers, I Pet. iv. 7! communion; 2 dinner; 2.30 chaise; 3 E. R[itchie]; 4 Birstall, tea; 4.30 Rom. iii. 23, society, chaise; 7 Gummersal [Gomersal], in talk! 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 5

 

4.30 Writ narrative, tea, chaise; 9 Morley, I Pet. i. 3! chaise, Leeds, within at Jo. Loyd’s [in text given as Floyd]; 1 dinner, conversed, on business, within; 4 prayed, tea, conversed; 6 Jam. ii. 22, society! 8.15 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.45.

 

We had a full house in the evening. I explained and applied Jas. ii. 22, which I suppose was never more needful to be insisted upon than it is this day.

 

Tues. 6.[5]-About eleven I accepted the invitation of Mr. Stone, a truly pious and active man, and preached in his church at Rawdon, ten miles from Leeds, to a very serious congregation, on Mark i. 15, ‘Repent ye, and believe the gospel.’

 

In the evening I preached at Otley to a lovely congregation, and at five in the morning.[6] At four in the afternoon [Thursday] I preached at Pateley Bridge, and, setting out at four on Friday morning, reached Kendal that evening (sixty-one miles), and Whitehaven at five on Saturday the 10th.

 

Tuesday 6

 

4 Prayed, Heb. ii. 1, letters; 8.15 tea, conversed, prayer, chaise; 10.30 Rawdon, prayers, Mark i. 15! 12.30 dinner, conversed; 2.30 chaise; 3.30 Otley, tea, conversed, prayed; 6 1 Thes. v. 23, society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 7

 

4 Prayed, Deut. xxxiii. 26, letters, writ Conf[erence] [he always had work, preparatory to the Conference, which involved writing]; 8 tea, con­versed, prayer; 9 Conf[erence]; 10 married T. Gill, Conf[erence], 11.30 Parkgate, Conf[erence], dinner; 2 Conf[ erence]; 4.15 tea, chaise; chaise, Psa. xc. 12! chaise, Otley, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 8

 

4 Prayed, letters, tea, prayer; 9 chaise, with E. R[itchie], Ripl[e]y, tea, conversed, chaise; 12 Patley [bridge], Conf[erence]; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 writ narrative, tea; 4 Heb. vi.1; 5 society, prayed, Journal; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.15.

 

Friday 9

 

3.30 Tea; 4 chaise; 8.30 tea, within, [-]; 9,30 chaise, Mag.; 12 Clap[-], dinner; 1 chaise; 3 K[irkby] Lonsdale, tea, chaise; 6 Kendal within, supper; 9 prayer; 9.15.

 

Saturday 10

 

3.30 On business; 4 chaise, prayed, Mag.; 7 Ambleside, tea; 7.45 chaise, 10.30 Keswick, tea, conversed; 11.30 chaise; 2 Cockerm[outh] dinner, conversed, prayer; 3 chaise; 5.30 Whitehaven, tea, within; 6 Psa. xxxiii. I, prayed, on business, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

The congregation in the evening rejoiced much, as they had not seen me for four years. But scarce any of the old standers are left: two-and-forty years have swept them away. Let Us who are left live to-day. ‘Now is the day of salvation.’

 

Sun. 11[7]  (being Whit Sunday). -In the morning, while those words were applied, ‘And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,’ His power was eminently present in the congregation; but much more in the evening. At noon Joseph Bradford preached in the market-place to a numerous congregation; and I am not without hope that poor Whitehaven will lift up its head again.

 

Mon. 12. -About eight I began preaching in the market-­house at Cockermouth. I was surprised to find several of those that are called ‘the best of the town’ there; and they were one and all serious and attentive; so we had a solemn parting. Hence we went on to Carlisle.[8] I never found this society so well united before. The preaching-house, begun three or four years ago, is now completely finished. It is neat, lightsome, and cheerful; but it was very ill able to contain the congregation. Several ministers were there, and so was the power of God, in an uncommon degree. All that were under the roof seemed to be moved more or less; and so they were in the morning,

 

Sunday 11

 

4 Prayed, letters, tea, 8 Acts ii. 4! letters; 11 prayers, dinner, letters; 4 tea, conversed; 5 Gal. v. 22! society, 

 

        walk, supper, prayer; 9.15.

 

Monday 12

 

4 Prayed, tea; 5 chaise; 7.30 Cokermou[th], tea; 8 Acts ii. 4! 9.30 chaise; 12.30 Red Dials [a posting-house 1½ miles from Wigton], dinner, Mag.; 2 chaise; 4 Carlisle, Mag., prayed, tea; 6 I Thes. iv. 8! walk, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday the 13th, when I besought them to present themselves a living sacrifice to God.

 

To-day we went on through lovely roads to Dumfries. In­deed, all the roads are wonderfully mended since I last travelled this way. Dumfries is beautifully situated; but as to wood and water, and gently rising hills, &c., is, I think, the neatest, as well as the most civilized town that I have seen in the kingdom. Robert Dan soon found me out. He has behaved exceeding well, and done much good here; but he is a bold man. He has begun building a preaching-house, larger than any in Scot­land, except those in Glasgow and Edinburgh![9]  In the evening I preached abroad in a convenient street on one side of the town. Rich and poor attended from every quarter, of whatever denomination; and everyone seemed to hear for life. Surely the Scots are the best hearers in Europe!

 

Wed. 14.[10] -At five I was importuned to preach in the preaching-house; but such a one I never saw before. It had no windows at all, so that, although the sun shone bright, we could see nothing without candles.[11]  But I believe our Lord shone on many hearts while I was applying those words, ‘I will, be thou clean.’ I breakfasted with poor Mr. Ashton, many years ago a member of our society in London; but far happier now in his little cottage than ever he was in his prosperity.

 

When I was in Scotland first, even at a nobleman’s table we had only flesh meat of one kind, but no vegetables of any kind; but now they are as plentiful here as in England.

 

Tuesday 13

 

4 Prayed, Rom. xii. I, tea; 6.30 walk, chaise, tea, chaise; 12.30 dinner; 2 chaise; 3.30 Dumfries, tea; 4 at R. Dall’s, together, letter, prayed; 6 2 Cor. viii. 9! 8 supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 14

 

4 Prayed, Matt. viii. 2,3, writ Mag.; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, writ Mag., communion; 1 dinner, letters, prayed; 5 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed; 6.30 Jo. iv. 24! supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Near Dumfries there are five very large public gardens, which furnish the town with greens and fruit in abundance.

 

The congregation in the evening was nearly double to that we had the last, and, if it was possible, more attentive. Indeed, one or two gentlemen, so called, laughed at first; but they quickly disappeared, and all were still while I explained the worship of God in spirit and in truth. Two of the clergy followed me to my lodging, and gave me a pressing invitation to their houses. Several others intended, it seems, to do the same; but, having a long journey before me, I left Dumfries earlier in the morning than they expected. We set out on Thursday the 15th at four, and reached Glasgow, Friday the 16th,[12] before noon.[13] Much of the country as we came is now well improved, and the wilderness become a fruitful field.

 

Our new preaching-house[14] will, I believe, contain about as many as the chapel at Bath. But oh the difference! It has the pulpit on one side, and has exactly the look of a Presby­terian meeting-house. It is the very sister of our house at Brentford.

 

Thursday 15

 

3.30 Tea; 4 chaise; 8 Moffat, tea; 9 chaise; 12 Ellenfoot, dinner; 1 chaise; 4 Douglas Mills, tea, conversed, walk; 6 Mag.; 7 supper, on business, prayer; 9.30

 

Friday 16

 

4 Chaise; 7 Hamilton, tea; 8.15 chaise; 10.30 Glasgow; 11 letters; 2.15 dinner, letters; 5 tea, conversed, letters; 7 Rom. iii. 22, supper, prayer; 9.30

 

Perhaps an omen of what will be when I am gone. I preached at seven to a tolerably large congregation, and to many of them at five in the morning. At six in the evening they were increased fourfold; but still I could not find the way to their hearts.

 

Sun. 18. -I preached at eleven on the parable of the Sower, at half-past two on Psa. 1. 23, and in the evening on ‘Now abideth faith, hope, love; these three.’ I subjoined a short account of Methodism, particularly insisting on the circum­stances: There is no other religious society under heaven which requires nothing of men in order to their admission into it but a desire to save their souls. Look all round you: you cannot be admitted into the Church, or society of the Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, or any others, unless you hold the same opinions with them, and adhere to the same mode of worship.

 

The Methodists alone do not insist on your holding this or that opinion; but they think and let think. Neither do they impose any particular mode of worship; but you may continue to worship in your former manner, be it what it may. Now, I do not know any other religious society, either ancient or modern, wherein such liberty of conscience is now allowed, or has been allowed, since the age of the apostles. Here is our glorying; and a glorying peculiar to us. What society shares it with us?

 

Mon. 19. -I went to Edinburgh, and preached to a much larger congregation than I used to see here on a week-day.        

 

Saturday 17

 

4 Prayed, Mat. v. 6, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters; 12 walk, visited; 1 at Mr. Gillies, dinner conversed, prayer; 2.30 letters; 4 prayed, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Isa. lvii. 1, 2! writ narrative; 8 supper, conversed, prayer, on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 18

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, sermon; 10.30 prayers, Mark iv. 3! ordained Jo[hn] Barber; 1 dinner, sleep, prayed; 2.15 Psa. I. 23, prayed, tea; 5.30 I Cor. xiii. 13, society; 7.30 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 19

 

3.30 Ordained brother Barb[er]; 4 chaise, Liv[ings]tone, tea, chaise; 10.30 tea, chaise; 2 Edinb[urgh], at brother Yeedal’s, conversed, leaders; 3.30 dinner; 4 letters, tea, prayed; 7 Psa. xxxiii. I, at L[ady] Ma[x­well’s], supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

I still find a frankness and openness in the people of Edinburgh which I find in few other parts of the kingdom. I spent two days among them with much satisfaction; and I was not at all disappointed, in finding no such increase, either in the congregation or the society, as many expected from their leaving the Kirk.[15]

 

Thur. 22. - The house at Dalkeith[16] being far too small, even at eight in the morning, to contain the congregation I preached in a garden on  ‘Seek ye the Lord while He may be found’; and, from the eager attention of the people, I could not but hope that some of them would receive the truth in love.[17] 

 

Tuesday 20

 

4 Walk, 2 Cor. iv. 7, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters; 12.30 walk, visited; 2 at L[ady] 

 

        Ma[xwell’s], class, conversed; 3 dinner, conversed, prayer, prayed; 5.30 tea, conversed; 6.30 Heb. x. 31; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 21

 

4 Prayed, walk, Heb. ii. I, letters, visited; 2 dinner, visited, conversed; 2.30 visited, tea, conversed; 6 prayed; 6.30 Deut. v. 7, society, chaise, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 22

 

4 Prayed; 5 chaise, Dalkei[th], tea, conversed, prayer, 8 lsai. Iv. 6! chaise; 1 Dunbar, on business; 2 dinner, conversed, christened, on business, tea, conversed, prayed, [-]; 6 Job xxii. 21! society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

In the evening I preached in the house at Dunbar, tolerably well filled, on Job xxii. 21, I believe with­ -

 

The spirit of convincing speech[18]: 

 

But much more at five in the morning, Friday the 23rd. And will God manifest His power among these dry bones also?

 

Immediately after preaching we set out. How is the face of this country changed in a few years! It was, twenty years ago, dreary enough; but is now as a pleasant garden. But what is most remarkable is the bridge which connects the two mountains, the Pease,[19] together-one of the noblest works in Great Britain, unless you would except the bridge at Edinburgh, which lies directly across the Cowgate. So that one street (a thing not heard of before) runs under another.

 

About noon we carne to Berwick-upon- Tweed; but, the town being all in a hurry, on occasion of the fair, so that I could not conveniently preach in the market-house, I was glad that Mr. Atcheson, the Presbyterian minister, offered me the use of his chapel. It was a large, commodious place. Several of his hearers attended; to whom I spoke exceeding plain in the evening on I Cor. xiii. 3, and in the morning on Isa. lix. 1-3.

 

Sat. 24. -About one we reached Alnwick. I was a little surprised at the new preaching-house (in which I preached in the evening), exactly resembling the meeting-house we hire at Brentford. Had they no eyes? Or had they never seen any

 

Friday 23

 

4 Prayed, Isa. Ivii. 1, 2; chaise, tea, conversed, prayer; 7 chaise; 9.30 the Pease, tea; 10.30 chaise; 12.45 Berwick, read; 1.30dinner, conversed, prayer; 5 tea, conversed; 6 I Cor. xiii. 3; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 24

 

4 Prayed, Isa. lix. 1, 2, tea; 6.30 chaise, Dr. Watso[n], Belf[ord], tea, chaise; 1 Alnwick, writ narrative; 2 dinner, conversed, on business; 4 prayed; 5 tea, conversed, prayer, 6 Lu. viii. 18! 7.30 read, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30 on business.

 

English house?   But the scarecrow must now stand without   remedy.[20]

 

Sun. 25. -This was the day on which all the Nonjuring[21] congregations in Scotland began, by common agreement, to pray in all their public worship for King George and his family. I preached at nine, at two, and at half-past five; the last time on the Gospel for the day (the history of ‘Dives’ and Lazarus), with much enlargement of spirit.

 

Mon. 26. -After preaching at five in the morning on Matt. xxvi., and taking a solemn leave of the congregation, I went on to Morpeth; but was informed the town-hall was totally engaged; the lower part by a company of players, the upper by a dancing-master. However, the latter did scruple the having his right; so I preached to the largest congregation I ever saw there. And our Lord seemed to­-

 

Dart into all the melting power

 

Of love, and make the mountains flow.

 

It was indeed a wonderful season, such as we had scarce had before since we left Bristol. In the evening I preached at Newcastle, to such a congregation as was never there before, unless on a Sunday; and indeed all the congregations, morn­ing and evening, were such as had not been before since the house was built. Surely this is the accepted time for Newcastle. Perhaps I may see it no more!

 

­

 

Sunday 25

 

4 Prayed, Journal, tea; 9 Heb. vi. I! 10.30 prayers; 12.45 dinner, conversed; 2 I Jo. iv. 19! 3 sleep, prayed, tea, conversed; 5.30 Lu. xvi.     31! society, visited some; 8 supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 26

 

4 Prayed, Rom. viii. 4! tea; 6.30 chaise; 9 tea, conversed; 9.30 chaise; 11.30 Morp[eth], Prov. iii. 17, dinner; 1 chaise; 3.15 Newc[astle], on business, within, tea; 5.30 prayed; 6 Lu. viii. 18! supper,             conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

[Fri. 30.] At noon I preached in the lower house [North Shields] to a very crowded congregation; and I believe most of them felt that God was there, for it was a season of great refreshment. So it was at the upper house in the evening. I doubt not but God will be glorified in both, provided the people in each agree to provoke one another only to love and to good works.

 

Sat. 31. -At five I preached in the lower house to a numerous congregation, I believe the greater part of whom had no thought of salvation till they heard the preaching at this place. Were it only for the sake of these, I do not regret all the trouble I have had on occasion of this building.

 

Tuesday 27

 

4 Prayed, Heb ii. I! letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, visited; 11 letters; 1 dinner, conversed; 2.30 letters, prayed; 4.30 at home, tea, con­versed, 6 Matt. xx. 16! the leaders; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 28[22]

 

 4 Prayed, Heb. xi. I, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer, 

 

        letters; 4 prayed; 5 tea, conversed, prayer; 6.30 Jam, ii. 22, within, supper, conversed, 

 

        prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 29

 

4 Prayed, I Pet. i. 3, writ Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters; 12.15 visited some; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 sleep, writ letter, prayed, tea, conversed, prayer, prayed; 6.30 2 Cor. v. 19; 7.30 the bands, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 30

 

4 Prayed, Heb. vi. I, texts; 8 tea, conversed, writ narrative; 10.30 coach; 12 [North] Shields, Psa. cxlvi. 4! dinner, letters, prayed, tea; 6 Psa xxxiii. I, society, writ narrative; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 31[23]

 

4 Prayed, [-], letter; 7.30 S[outh] Shields, tea, prayed; 9 I Cor. i. 30 ; 10 chaise; 12 at brother H[--], letter; 1.30 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 letter, prayed, tea, conversed, prayer; 6. I Cor. ix. 24, supper, prayer, on business; 9.30.

---

 

[1] A township in the parish of Kirkburton, six miles south-east of Hudders­field (1915), part of the Holmfirth cir­cuit. The ‘open-air’ place at which he preached was Aymersham Common, in the township of Shelley.

 

[2] One who was present on this occa­sion represents the Octagon Chapel as well filled on that occasion. This was Wesley’s last visit to Bradford.

 

[3] Eccleshill was the third chapel erected in the neighbourhood of Bradford, and was built towards the close of the year 1775, principally through the exertions of Zechariah and Thomas Yewdall. The question in dispute was the power of appointment. Six years earlier, in a letter to Samuel Bradburn, then stationed in the Bradford circuit, Wesley had ex­plicitly stated the case:

 

I abhor the thought of giving to twenty men the power to place or displace the preachers in their congregations. How would he then dare to speak an unpleasing truth? And, if he did, what would become of him? This must never be the case while I live among the Methodists. And Birstall is a leading case-the first of an avowed violation of our plan. Therefore, the point must be carried for the Methodist preachers, now or never; and 1 alone can carry it, which I will, God being my helper.

 

The result was the Deed of Declara­tion, the Constitution of the Conference, and ultimately the Model Deed. But though the principle might be settled, there were places-and Eccleshill, near Bradford, was one of them-where the old dispute continued, or from time to time broke out afresh. Here the struggle raged around the key of the chapel-who should possess it? The meeting of trustees referred to in the text was held in the house of John Child, and was open to all comers-in fact, a town’s meeting.

 

[4] As he travelled through the West Riding he filled his spare hours in writing a ‘sermon’ which may never have been preached, but which was published in the Arm. Mag., and in the Works as the first of the ‘Third Series,’ consisting of eighteen Discourses, written for insertion in the Arm. Mag., but which were never revised by Wesley after their ‘pub­lication.’ This sermon, on ‘What is Man?’ was finished, it is said, at Eccles­hill, and certainly was dated ‘Bradford, May 2, 1788.’ The Diary gives the texts of ,all the sermons preached during this visit in or near Bradford. This, on Psa. viii. 4, is not among the number. We suggest that it was written for the Magazine and not for the pulpit. On Sunday, May 4, at 10.15, he read prayers and preached in Bradford parish church (of which his old friend, the Rev. John Crosse, was vicar-see above, April 23, 1786). His text, as we learn from the Diary, was 1 Pet. iv. 7, being part of the Epistle for the day. It was this sermon, and not the one finished and dated at Eccleshill two days before, that rang through the country as a prediction of the date of the coming destruction of all things. See his disavowal of such an intention in his letter to Christopher Hopper, Meth. Mag 1827, p. 391 (for all this period see W. W. Stamp’s Methodism in Bradford, pp. 74-9, and J. Norton Dickons’s Kirkgate Chapel, Bradford, pp. 57-9).

 

[5] He wrote to Henry Moore (Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 543).

 

[6] On May 8 (or, according to Diary, the 7th) he married Thomas Gill to a servant of the Ritchie family in Otley church. See W.H.S. vol. vii. p. 161.

 

[7] He wrote from Whitehaven to Henry Moore, and again, probably on the 16th, the two letters marking phases in the Church-hours’ controversy. See his letter of the same date to Dr. Coke (Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 543), and below, p. 482.

 

[8] For early Methodism in Carlisle see above, vol. v. p. 453 n., and W. M. Mag. 1826, p. 96. The building erected in Fisher Street still stands as the Rich­mond Memorial Hall. in the hands of the Church of England,

 

[9] Wesley had consented to his building a chapel, provided he could obtain a loan of a hundred guineas on interest. See Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 532; also W.H.S. vol. v. p. 91.

 

[10] He wrote to ‘My dear Sister.’ See new ed. Wesley Letters.

 

[11] This was not Robert Dall’s chapel, which was only just begun, but an earlier room which the new one was to supersede.

 

[12] He wrote from Glasgow to Dr. Coke, with reference to Dumfries and a proposal to ordain Joseph Cownley; also as to the Methodists of Dublin re­ceiving the Lord’s Supper once a month either at St. Patrick’s or their own parish church. ‘On this condition I would allow Henry Moore to read the morn­ing service at Whitefriars on the other Sundays.’ (New ed. Wesley Letters.) On Wesley’s return he ordained Cownley.

 

[13] Atmore in his Journal (W.M. Mag. 1845, p. 111) says that Wesley came to Glasgow quite unexpectedly, and he gives all the texts from which he preached during his visit. Tyerman says it had been widely reported by some of the Scottish ministers that he was about to publish a new edition of the Bible, leaving out part of the Epistle to the Romans, St. John’s Apocalypse, and other portions of the inspired writings.

 

[14] Opened by Charles Atmore, May 27, 1787. It was situated at the corner of John Street and Cochrane Street. It was rebuilt in 1854. The site was acquired in 1879 by the Corporation for the erection of the Municipal Buildings. The closing service was the Watch-night of Dec. 31, 1881, and on New Year’s Day 1882 its successor, St. John’s Chapel, was opened (Meth. Rec. March 28, 1912).

 

[15] That is to say, many expected an increase to come from an exodus from the Kirk to Methodism. On May 20 he wrote to Mrs. Jane Cock (née Bisson) (Works, vol. xiii. p. 108). On the same day he wrote from Edinburgh to Mr. William Whitestone, of Dublin, repeating the compromise agreed to with Dr. Coke:

 

I will not leave the Church. But on con­dition that our friends will attend St. Pat­rick’s one Sunday in the month, on the other then I will allow that there should be service at the New Room (W.H.S. vol. viii. p.48). 

 

See also Crookshank’s Methodism in Ireland, vol. i. p. 442.

 

[16] On May 1 the foundation of a new chapel had been laid. The congregation was not large, owing to the prejudice excited by extreme Calvinists who had circulated the scurrilous abuse of the Hervey ‘Eleven Letters.’ For the story see Arm. Mag. 1795, PP. 372 and 422; also Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. ii. pp. 526-32, and Green’s Anti-Meth. Publications, Nos. 361-3. Wesley gave a donation to the new chapel.

 

[17] See W.M. Mag. 1913, PP. 803-4 where extracts from Zechariah Yewdall’s manuscript journal are given, one of which refers to this service.

 

[18] See v. 3. 1. I of hymn 233 in Methodist Hymn-Book of 1904. 

 

[19] See above, p. 166.

 

[20] He laid the foundation on June 2, 1786. The ‘scarecrow’ was remedied one hundred years later, being altered at a cost of over two thousand pounds. On Wesley’s description Jacob Stanley, in his memoir of his father, Edward Stanley W.M. Mag. 1826, p. 803), writes: 

 

A description for which I know not how to account on any other supposition than that he [Wesley] had been very much exhausted with his ride from Berwick, and that the organs of vision were then greatly impaired. The only resemblance between it and the chapel formerly hired in Brentford con­sisted in each having two very long windows, between which the pulpit was situated.

 

For Methodism in Alnwick see articles in W.H.S. vol. vii. pp. 63, 88.

 

[21] See Macaulay’s Hist. of Eng. ch. xvi. for an interesting account of the Presby­terian Nonjurors.

 

[22] On May 28 he wrote from Newcastle to Jasper Winscom and to Mrs. Rogers (Works, vol. xii. p. 526; vol. xiii. p. 85).

 

[23] On the 31st he wrote to the Millbourn Place Society, North Shields (W.H.S. vol. iv. p. 226, and above, p. 168).