WESLEY IN AMERICA.
ONE of the most remarkable chapters in the life of John Wesley relates
to his mission to America.
There was a tract of land in North America, lying between South Carolina
and Florida, over which the English held a nominal jurisdiction. It was
a wild, unexplored wilderness, inhabited only by Indian tribes. Under
the sanction of a royal charter in 1732 a settlement was made in this
territory, and as a compliment to the king, George II, it was named
Georgia.
The object of such a settlement was twofold: first, to supply an outlet
for the redundant population of the English metropolis; and, secondly,
to furnish a safe asylum for foreign Protestants who were the subjects
of popish intolerance. No Roman Catholic could find a home there. James
Edward Oglethorpe, an earnest friend of humanity, was appointed the
first governor of the territory, and he and twenty others were named as
trustees, to hold the territory twenty years in trust for the poor.
The first company of emigrants, one hundred and twenty-four in number,
had already landed at Savannah and were breathing its balmy air, and the
enthusiastic governor was on his return to inspire in the mind of the
English people increased confidence in the new enterprise.
Having long been a personal friend of the Wesley family, Oglethorpe knew
well the sterling worth of the two brothers, John and Charles, who were
still at Oxford. An application was made to some of the Oxford
Methodists to settle in the new colony as clergymen. Such sacrifices as
they were ready to endure, and such a spirit as seemed to inflame them,
were regarded as excellent qualities for the hardships of such a country
as Georgia. Mr. Wesley was earnestly pressed by no less a person than
the famous Dr. Burton to undertake a mission to the Indians of Georgia,
Dr. Burton telling him that "plausible and popular doctors of divinity
were not the men wanted in Georgia," but men "inured to contempt of the
ornaments and conveniences of life, to bodily austerities, and to
serious thoughts." He finally consented, his brother Charles, Benjamin
Ingham, and Charles Delamotte joining him.
When the project was made public it was regarded by many as a Quixotic
scheme. One inquired of John: "Do you intend to become a knight-errant?
How did Quixotism get into your head? You want nothing. You have a good
provision for life. You are in a fair way for promotion, and yet you are
leaving all to fight windmills."
"Sir," replied Mr. Wesley, "if the Bible be not true, I am as very a
fool and madman as you can conceive. But if that book be of God, I am
sober-minded; for it declares, 'There is no man that hath left houses,
and friends, and brethren for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not
receive manifold in this present time, and in the world to come
everlasting life.'"
He submitted his plans to his widowed mother, asking her advice. She
replied, "Had I twenty sons, I should rejoice to see them all so
employed." His sister Emily said, "Go, my brother;" and his brother
Samuel joined with his mother and sister in bidding him Godspeed.
All things being in readiness, on the 14th of October, 1735, the company
embarked on board the _Simmonds_, off Gravesend, and after a few days'
detention set sail for the New World.
This was a voyage of discovery--the discovery of holiness.
"Our end in leaving our native land," Wesley says, "was not to avoid
want, God having given us plenty of temporal blessings; nor to gain the
dung and dross of riches and honor; but simply to save our souls, to
live wholly to the glory of God."
Wesley hoped by subjecting himself to the hardships of such a life to
secure that holiness for which his soul so ardently longed. He had no
clear conception as yet of the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. He
hoped by spending his life among rude savages to escape the temptations
of the great metropolis. In the wilds of America he could live on "water
and bread and the fruits of the earth," and speak "without giving
offense." He justly concluded that "pomp and show of the world had no
place in the wilds of America." "An Indian hut offered no food for
curiosity." "My chief motive," he says, "is the hope of saving my own
soul. I hope to learn the true sense of the Gospel of Christ by
preaching it to the heathen." "I cannot hope to attain the same degree
of holiness here which I do there." "I hope," he continues, "from the
moment I leave the English shore, under the acknowledged character of a
teacher sent from God, there shall be no word heard from my lips but
what properly flows from that character."
But Wesley could not get away from himself. The greatest hindrance to
holiness was in his own heart. He had looked for holiness in works,
sacrifices, austerities, etc., but had failed to see that it was by
faith alone.
The voyage, though of almost unparalleled roughness, was of infinite
profit to Wesley. A company of Moravians, with David Nitschmann as their
bishop, were passengers, bound to the New World, fleeing from popish
persecutions. Wesley, observing their behavior in the midst of great
peril, was convinced that they were in possession of that to which he
was a stranger. Ingham represented them as "a heavenly minded people."
Fifty-seven days of sea life brought them within sight of the beautiful
Savannah. Soon they were kneeling upon its soil, thanking God for his
merciful care and providential deliverance.
An event occurred on the voyage to Georgia illustrating Wesley's
character. General Oglethorpe had become offended at his Italian
servant. Hearing a disturbance in the cabin, Wesley stepped in. The
general, observing him, and being in a high temper, sought to apologize.
"You must excuse me, Mr. Wesley," he said; "I have met with a
provocation too great for a man to bear. You know I drink nothing but
Cyprus wine. I provided myself with several dozens of it, and this
villain, Grimaldi, has drank nearly the whole lot of it. I will be
avenged. He shall be tied hand and foot, and carried to the man-of-war.
[A man-of-war accompanied the expedition for protection.] The rascal
should have taken care how he used me so, for I never forgive." Wesley,
fixing his eye upon the general--an eye that seemed to penetrate his
soul--said, "Then I hope, general, you never sin!"
The general's heart was touched, his conscience smitten. He stood
speechless before the youthful evangelist for a moment, and then threw
his bunch of keys on the floor before his poor, cringing servant,
saying, "There, villain, take my keys; and behave better in the future."
Wesley, it seems, had the moral courage, which probably no other man
possessed on that ship, to reprove General Oglethorpe to his face.
Soon after landing in Georgia, Wesley met Spangenberg, the Moravian
elder, and desired to know of him how he should prosecute his new
enterprise. The devout man of God saw clearly the need of the young
evangelist, and inquired of him: "Have you the witness within yourself?
Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a
child of God?" Wesley seemed surprised at such questions. Spangenberg
continued, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" Wesley replied, "I know him as
the Saviour of the world." "True," responded the Moravian elder, "but do
you know that he saves you?" Wesley replied, "I hope he has died to save
me." Spangenberg gravely added, "Do you know yourself?" Wesley answered,
"I do;" and here the interview ended.
[Illustration: WESLEY'S ARM-CHAIR.]
Charles Wesley was Oglethorpe's secretary, in place of Rev. Samuel
Quincy, a native of Massachusetts, who retired from the office,
desiring to return to England, where he had been educated. Ingham seems
to have attached himself to Charles Wesley, and devoted himself to the
children and the poor, and was the first to follow Charles to England.
Delamotte was impelled to go to Georgia from his love of John Wesley and
his desire to serve him in any capacity; and he never left him for a day
while Wesley remained in America. He was the last to leave the colony.
John Wesley was the sole minister of the colony, and stood next to
Oglethorpe himself.
The Georgia to which Wesley came was very different from the Georgia of
to-day. It had only a few English settlements, the most of the territory
being the home of savage Indians. These tribes being at war with each
other, all access to them was cut off. Not being able to extend their
mission among them, Wesley and his colaborers turned their attention to
the whites, hoping that God would before long open their way to preach
the Gospel to the Indians. In the prosecution of their mission they
practiced the most rigid austerities. They slept on the ground instead
of on beds, lived on bread and water, dispensing with all the luxuries
and most of the necessities of life. They were, in season and out of
season, everywhere urging the people to a holy life. Wesley set apart
three hours of each day for visiting the people at their homes,
choosing the midday hours when the people were kept indoors by the
scorching heat.
Charles Wesley and Mr. Ingham were at Frederica, where the people were
frank to declare that they liked nothing they did. Even Oglethorpe
himself had become the enemy of his secretary, and falsely accused him
of inciting a mutiny.
Their plain, earnest, practical public preaching and private rebukes
aroused the spirit of persecution, which broke upon them without mixture
of mercy. Scandal, with its scorpion tongue; backbiting, with its canine
proclivities; and gossip, which also does immense business on borrowed
capital--these ran like fires over sun-scorched prairies, until these
devoted servants of God were well-nigh consumed.
At Frederica, Charles narrowly escaped assassination. So general and
bitter was the hate that he says: "Some turned out of the way to avoid
me." "The servant that used to wash my linen sent it back unwashed." "I
sometimes pitied and sometimes diverted myself with the odd expressions
of their contempt, but found the benefit of having undergone a much
lower degree of obloquy at Oxford."
While very sick he was unable to secure a few boards to lie upon, and
was obliged to lie on the ground in the corner of Mr. Reed's hut. He
thanked God that it had not as yet become a "capital offense to give
him a morsel of bread." Though very sick, he was able to go out at night
to bury a scout-boatman, "but envied him his quiet grave." He procured
the old bedstead on which the boatman had died, upon which to rest his
own sinking and almost dying frame; but the bedstead was soon taken from
him by order of Oglethorpe himself. But through the mercy of God and the
coming of his brother and Mr. Delamotte he recovered.
After about six months (February 5 to July 25) spent in labors more
abundant, and almost in stripes above measure, Providence opened his way
to return to England as bearer of dispatches to the government. He took
passage in a rickety old vessel with a drunken captain, and all came
near being lost at sea. The ship put into Boston in distress, and there
Charles Wesley remained for more than a month, sick much of the time,
but preaching several times in King's Chapel, corner of School and
Tremont Streets, and in Christ Church, on Salem Street. This latter
church remains as it was when Wesley occupied its pulpit.
John remained in Georgia--at Frederica and Savannah--battling with sin
and Satan, with a Christian boldness which might almost have inspired
wonder among the angels. His life was frequently threatened at
Frederica, and at Savannah there was no end to the insults he endured.
Hearing of his conflicts, Whitefield writes to him to "go on and
prosper, and, in the strength of God, make the devil's kingdom shake
about his ears."
Through the cunning craftiness and manifest hypocrisy of one Miss
Hopkey, niece of the chief magistrate, and a lady of great external
accomplishments, he came near being ruined. She sought his company;
bestowed on him every attention; watched him when sick; was always at
his early morning meetings; dressed in pure white because she learned
that he was pleased with that color; was always manifesting great
interest in his spiritual state; and all, without doubt, to cover up
deeper designs. Mr. Wesley, always unsuspecting and confiding, became
strongly attached to her for a time, but was subsequently convinced that
God did not approve of an alliance in that direction, and at once
determined to cut every cord which bound them. At this the lady became
greatly exasperated, and within a few days was married to another
man--Williamson--and then, with her husband and uncle to aid her, she
sought in every way the overthrow of Mr. Wesley.
Mr. Tyerman seeks to make this case, as, in fact, many others, turn to
the disadvantage of Wesley. He will have it that Wesley had promised to
marry Miss Hopkey, though Henry Moore declares that Wesley told him
that no such thing ever occurred. Mr. Tyerman gives credit to the
testimony of the hypocritical Miss Hopkey rather than to that of Henry
Moore and John Wesley.
After a time Wesley, for just causes, excluded Mrs. Williamson from the
Lord's table, and gave his reasons for so doing. For this he was
prosecuted before the courts, a packed and paid grand jury bringing
against him ten indictments, and the minority presenting a strong
counter report. The case never came to trial, though Wesley made seven
fruitless efforts to have it tried.
The prejudice excited against him by the chief magistrate and others
became so strong that he could accomplish but little good among the
people.
In the midst of these conflicts he held every Sunday, from five to six,
a prayer service in English; at nine, another in Italian; from 10:30 to
12:30 he preached a sermon in English and administered the communion; at
one he held a service in French; at two he catechised the children; at
three he held another service in English; still later he conducted a
service in his own house, consisting of reading, prayer, and praise; and
at six attended the Moravian service.
He finally resolved, as his mission seemed at an end, to leave Georgia
and return to England. His public announcement of his purpose created
great excitement among all classes. The magistrate forbade his
departure. Williamson demanded that he give bail to answer the suit
against him; but this he refused to do, telling them that he had sought
seven times to have the case tried, but in vain, and that for the
balance they could look after that. On the same night, after public
prayers, with four men to accompany him, Wesley left Savannah, December
2, 1737, never more to return. They took a small boat to Perrysburg, a
distance of some twelve miles. They then made their way on foot through
swamps and forests, suffering untold hardships from cold, hunger, and
thirst for four days, when they safely arrived at Port Royal. Here
Delamotte joined them, and all took boat for Charleston, where they
arrived after four more days of toil.
After spending a few days in Charleston Mr. Delamotte returned to
Savannah, and on the 22d day of December Mr. Wesley set sail for
England, where he safely arrived on the first day of the following
February, the next day after Mr. Whitefield had sailed for America.
Mr. Wesley did not regard his mission to America as a failure. He
blessed God for having been carried to America, contrary to all his
preceding resolutions. "Hereby I trust He hath, in some measure,
_humbled me and proved me, and shown me what was in my heart_."
Mr. Whitefield writes, on his arrival in Georgia: "The work Mr. Wesley
has done in America is inexpressible. His name is very precious among
the people; and he has laid a foundation that I hope neither man nor
devils will ever be able to shake. O, that I may follow him as he
followed Christ!"