WESLEY'S EARLY LIFE.
DURING the first eleven years of Wesley's life two events occurred
worthy of note. At the age of five he was rescued from the burning
parsonage almost by miracle. On a winter night, February 9, 1709, while
all the family were wrapped in slumber, the cry of "Fire! fire!" was
heard on the street. The rector was suddenly awakened, and, though half
naked, sought to arouse his family. He rushed to the chamber, called the
nurse and the children, and bade them "rise quickly and shift for
themselves." After great effort they succeeded in making their escape
from the burning house. They are all safe except "Jack." He had not been
seen by anyone. In a few moments his voice was heard, crying for help.
The flames were everywhere. The father, greatly excited, attempted to
rush upstairs, but the flames drove him back. He fell on his knees and
commended the soul of his boy to God.
[Illustration: THE WESLEYAN MEMORIAL CHURCH, EPWORTH, ENGLAND.]
While the father was on his knees the boy had mounted a trunk and called
from the window. There was no time for ladders, for the house was
nigh to falling. One cried, "Come here! I will stand against the wall,
and you mount my shoulders quickly." In a moment it was done, and the
child was pulled through the casement, and the next moment the walls
fell--inward, through mercy--and the child, as well as the one who
rescued him, was saved. His father received him as "a brand plucked from
the burning," and in the joy of his heart cried out: "Come, neighbors,
let us kneel down, and give thanks to God! He has given me all my
children. Let the house go; I am rich enough."
There is no doubt but that some of his dastardly parishioners fired his
house, and now house, books, furniture, manuscripts, and clothing were
all gone. But this foul act made him many friends. A new house was
built, but it was many years before he recovered from the loss, if,
indeed, he ever did.
John's wonderful escape deeply impressed his mother that God intended
him for some work of special importance in the history of the Church and
the world, and she felt that she ought to devote special attention to
him and train him for God.
At eight years of age John contracted that most dreaded disease,
smallpox. His father was from home at the time. Mrs. Wesley, writing,
says: "Jack has borne his disease bravely, like a man--and, indeed, like
a Christian--without any complaint; though he seems angry at the
smallpox when they are sore, as we guess by his looking sourly at them;
for he never says anything." Brave boy!
CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOL.
Passing from the watchful eye of his father and the tender, loving, and
almost unexampled care and instruction of his mother, he entered, at
about the age of eleven, the famous Charterhouse School, London. This
was built originally for a monastery. It was purchased by Thomas Sutton,
Esq., and under a charter from King James he established a school for
the young. In this school forty-four boys, between the ages of ten and
fifteen, were gratuitously fed, clothed, and instructed in the classics.
Here such notables as Addison, Steele, Blackstone, Isaac Barrows, and
others were educated.
Young Wesley was largely aided in securing this position by the Duke of
Buckingham, who seems to have been a fast friend of the family. He
secured for him a scholarship, which gave him about two hundred dollars
a year. By the direction of his father he ran around the playgrounds
three times every morning for the benefit of his health. It was a school
of trial. Being a charity scholar, he did not escape the taunts of his
fellow-students more highly favored than he; but he bore all with
meekness, patiently suffering wrongfully. He remained there some six
years, and, though a mere youth, he distinguished himself in every
branch of scholarship to which he turned his attention.
Mr. Tyerman, who seems to have searched for every spot on this rising
sun, is bold to say that Wesley "lost the religion which had marked his
character from the days of his infancy. He entered the Charterhouse a
saint, and left it a sinner." We cannot find this marked change on the
record with the clearness with which it appears to Mr. Tyerman. There is
no evidence that Wesley had ever known the converting grace of God up to
this time, and, if not, we are unable to see how he could have lost it.
That he was a sinner at this time there can be no doubt. But, while he
confesses that he was a sinner, he declares that his "sins were not
scandalous in the eyes of the world." Instead of being the wicked boy
that Mr. Tyerman represents him to have been, he declares: "I still read
the Scriptures, and said my prayers morning and evening. And what I now
hoped to be saved by was: (1) Not being as bad as other people; (2)
Having still a kindness for religion; and (3) Reading my Bible, going to
church, and saying my prayers." Should an unconverted young man in these
times, in passing through our high schools or seminaries, give evidence
that he read his Bible, prayed morning and evening, attended church
regularly, joined in all the devotions, went to the sacrament, and
manifested a kindness for religion, who would say that "he entered the
school a saint, and left it a sinner"? There is no evidence that Wesley,
during his six years' course at the Charterhouse, ever contracted
vicious habits or became a flagrant sinner. The wonder is that, with
such corrupt and corrupting influences surrounding him, he had not been
morally ruined.
CHRIST COLLEGE.
At the age of seventeen he entered Christ College, Oxford, one of the
noblest colleges of that famous seat of learning, where he remained five
years, under the care of Dr. Wigon, a gentleman of fine classical
attainments. His excellent standing at the Charterhouse gave him a high
position at Oxford. His means of support were very limited. His mother
laments their inability to assist him. In a letter to him she says:
DEAR JACK: I am uneasy because I have not heard from
you. If all things fail, I hope God will not forsake
us. We have still his good providence to depend on.
Dear Jack, be not discouraged. Do your duty. Keep
close to your studies, and hope for better days.
Perhaps, after all, we shall pick up a few crumbs for
you before the end of the year. Dear Jack, I beseech
Almighty God to bless thee.
SUSANNAH WESLEY.
This indicates the great financial embarrassment in which they were
often found, as well as their abiding trust in God.
His mother seems deeply concerned for his religious life. She writes,
"Now in good earnest resolve to make religion the business of life; for,
after all, that is the one thing that, strictly speaking, is necessary.
All things besides are comparatively little to the purposes of life. I
heartily wish you would now enter upon a strict examination of yourself,
that you may know whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation by
Jesus Christ. If you have it, the satisfaction of knowing it will
abundantly reward your pains; if you have it not, you will find a more
reasonable occasion for tears than can be met with in any tragedy."
His brother Samuel writes hopefully to his father: "My brother Jack, I
can faithfully assure you, gives you no manner of discouragement from
believing your third son a scholar. Jack is a brave boy, learning Hebrew
as fast as he can."
At the age of twenty-one, while yet a student at Oxford, "he appears,"
says a writer of the time, "the very sensible and acute collegian; a
young fellow of the finest classical taste, of the most liberal and
manly sentiments." Alexander Knox says: "His countenance, as well as his
conversation, expressed an habitual gayety of heart, which nothing but
conscious innocence and virtue could have bestowed." Then, referring to
him in more advanced life, he says: "He was, in truth, the most perfect
specimen of moral happiness I ever saw; and my acquaintance with him has
done more to teach me what a heaven upon earth is implied in the
maturity of Christian piety than all I have elsewhere seen or heard or
read, except in the sacred volume." "Strange," says another writer,
"that such a man should have become a target for poisoned arrows,
discharged, not by the hands of mad-cap students only, but by college
dignitaries, by men solemnly pledged to the work of Christian
education!"
About this time Wesley became Fellow of Lincoln College, and his brother
Charles, who was five years younger, became a student of Christ Church
College. He had prepared for college at Westminster grammar school, and
was a "gay young fellow, with more genius than grace," loving pleasure
more than piety. When John sought to revive the "fireside devotion" of
the Epworth home he rejoined, with some degree of earnestness, "What!
would you have me be a saint all at once?"
In September of 1725 John was ordained deacon by Bishop Potter, and in
March of the following year was elected Fellow of Lincoln College, with
which his aged father seems to have been greatly delighted, saying,
"Wherever I am, Jack is Fellow of Lincoln!"
HIS FATHER'S CURATE.
His father's health failing, John was urged to become his curate. He
responded to his father's request, but does not seem to have had a very
high appreciation of his father's flock, for he describes them as
"unpolished wights, as dull as asses and impervious as stones." But for
about two years he hammers away, preaching the law as he then understood
it, confessing that "he saw no fruit for his labor."
He then returned to Oxford as Greek lecturer, devoting himself to the
study of logic, ethics, natural philosophy, oratory, Hebrew, and Arabic.
He perfected himself in French, and spoke and wrote Latin with
remarkable purity and correctness. He gave considerable attention to
medicine. In this way Providence was fitting him for the great work of
which he was to be the God-ordained leader. About the time that Wesley
entered upon his ministry, by episcopal ordination, and commenced his
lifework, Voltaire was expelled from France and fled to England. During
a long life he and Wesley were contemporaries. Mr. Tyerman gives a
graphic description of these two remarkable men. "Perhaps of all the men
then living," he says, "none exercised so great an influence as the
restless philosopher and the unwearied minister of Christ. Wesley, in
person, was beautiful; Voltaire was of a physiognomy so strange, and
lighted up with fire so half-hellish and half-heavenly, that it was hard
to say whether it was the face of a satyr or man. Wesley's heart was
filled with a world-wide benevolence; Voltaire, though of a gigantic
mind, scarcely had a heart at all--an incarnation of avaricious
meanness, and a victim to petty passions. Wesley was the friend of all
and the enemy of none; Voltaire was too selfish to love, and when forced
to pay the scanty and ill-tempered homage which he sometimes rendered it
was always offered at the shrine of rank and wealth. Wesley had myriads
who loved him; Voltaire had numerous admirers, but probably not a
friend. Both were men of ceaseless labor, and almost unequaled authors;
but while the one filled the land with blessings, the other, by his
sneering and mendacious attacks against revealed religion, inflicted a
greater curse than has been inflicted by the writings of any other
author either before or since. The evangelist is now esteemed by all
whose good opinions are worth having; the philosopher is only remembered
to be branded with well-merited reproach and shame." Voltaire ended his
life as a fool by taking opium, while Wesley ends his life in holy
triumph, exclaiming, "The best of all is, God is with us."