WESLEY'S MULTIPLIED LABORS.
NO sooner had Mr. Wesley experienced the transforming power of grace
than he hastened to declare it to all, taking "the world" for his
"parish."
After confessing to those immediately about him what God had done for
his soul he flew with all possible speed to declare it to the miners in
their darkness, to the Newgate felons in their loathsome cells, to the
wealthy and refined worshipers at St. John's and St. Ives', offering in
burning words a common salvation alike to the Newgate felon and to the
St. John's and St. Ives' aristocracy.
Mr. Wesley was a most pertinacious adherent of the English
Establishment, and never dreamed of attempting the salvation of souls by
preaching the Gospel outside of her church walls until he was ruthlessly
expelled from all her pulpits. But he had firmly resolved that neither
bishops, nor curates, nor church wardens should stand between him and
duty. But what to do and where to go he did not know. Every door seemed
closed against him, and almost every face save the face of God frowned
upon him. But while God smiled he knew no fear. In his extremity he took
counsel of Whitefield, resulting in a firm purpose to do the work to
which Providence seemed to have clearly called them. Churches were
closed, to be sure, but the unsaved and perishing were everywhere except
in the churches, and to reach and to save them they betook themselves to
the wide, wide world. They were now seen in hospitals, administering
spiritual comfort to the sick; in prisons, offering eternal life to
condemned felons; at Kingswood, calling the dark colliers to a knowledge
of the truth. In these places unfrequented by sacerdotal robes the
Gospel of the grace of God was carried by these unhonored servants of
Jesus. But soon prisons and hospitals were denied them, and then they
fled to the fields and to the streets of the cities, choosing for their
pulpits the market-house steps, a horse-block, a coal heap, a table, a
stone wall, a mountain side, a horse's back, etc.
The colliers of Kingswood had no church, no Sabbath, no Gospel. They
were the most corrupt, degraded, blasphemous class to be found in
England. Southey describes them as "lawless, brutal, and worse than
heathen." They seemed to have been forsaken of God and man. This was a
fit place to test the power of "the Gospel of the grace of God." The
intrepid Whitefield was the first to break the ice. "Pulpits are
denied," he says, "and the poor colliers are ready to perish." So he
unfurled the Gospel banner "with a mountain for his pulpit," he says,
"and the broad heavens for a sounding-board."
The Wesleys are lifting up their voices like trumpets in all parts of
the kingdom. They are threading their way along the mountains of Wales,
where the people know as little of Christianity as do the wild Indians
of our Western plains. They are seen in Ireland, in all her towns and
cities, calling her papal-cursed sons to a knowledge of Jesus. Again
their voices are heard amid the hills and vales of Scotland, urging her
stern clans to accept Jesus by faith alone. Then they are surrounded by
tens of thousands of besmeared miners who are weeping for sin and
rejoicing in deliverance from it.
Mr. Wesley and John Nelson for three weeks labored to introduce the
Gospel into Cornwall. During this time they slept on the floor. Nelson
says that Mr. Wesley had his great coat for his pillow, while Nelson had
Burkitt's _Notes on the New Testament_ for his. After they had been
there nearly three weeks, one morning about three o'clock, Mr. Wesley
turned over, and finding Nelson awake, clapped him on his side, saying,
"Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer; I have one whole side yet, for
the skin is off but one side." As they were leaving Cornwall Mr. Wesley
stopped his horse to pick blackberries, saying, "Brother Nelson, we
ought to be thankful that there are plenty of blackberries, for this is
the best country I ever saw to get an appetite and the worst place to
provide means to satisfy it." Still they courageously pushed forward,
with the one purpose of saving men.
That we may aid the reader in getting a clearer and more comprehensive
conception of the immense amount of labor performed by Mr. Wesley, we
will arrange it under distinct heads:
1. His travels were immense. He averaged, during a period of fifty-four
years, about five thousand miles a year, some say eight, making in all
at least some two hundred and ninety thousand miles, a distance equal to
circumnavigating the globe about twelve times. It must not be forgotten
that most of this travel was performed on horseback. Think of riding
around the globe on horseback twelve times!
2. The amount of his preaching was unparalleled. Mr. Wesley preached not
less than twenty sermons a week--frequently many more. These sermons
were delivered mostly in the open air and under circumstances calculated
to test the nerve of the most vigorous frame. He did, in the matter of
preaching, what no other man ever did--he preached on an average, for a
period of fifty-four years, fifteen sermons a week, making in all
forty-two thousand four hundred, besides numberless exhortations and
addresses on a great variety of occasions.
A minister in these times does well to preach one hundred sermons a
year. At this rate, to preach as many sermons as Mr. Wesley did, such a
minister must live and preach four hundred and twenty-four years. Think
of a minister preaching two sermons each week day and three each Sabbath
for fifty-four years, and some idea can be formed of Mr. Wesley's labors
in this department.
3. His literary labors were extraordinary. While traveling five thousand
miles and more a year, or at least about fourteen miles a day, and
preaching two sermons, and frequently five, each day, he read
extensively. He read not less than two thousand two hundred volumes on
all subjects, many of the volumes folios, after the old English style.
His journals show that he read not only to understand, but to severely
criticise his author as well.
The number of his publications will scarcely be credited by those who
are not familiar with them, especially when we consider the amount of
time he spent in traveling and preaching, and the urgency of his
engagements, both of a public and private nature.
He wrote and published grammars of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French,
and English languages.
He was for many years editor of a monthly periodical of fifty-six pages,
known as the _Arminian Magazine_, requiring the undivided attention of
any ordinary man in these times.
He wrote, abridged, revised, and published a library of fifty volumes
known as the _Christian Library_, one of the most remarkable collections
of Christian literature of the times. He subsequently reread and revised
the whole work with great care, and it was afterward published in thirty
volumes--a marvel of excellence and industry.
He published an abridgment of Mosheim's _Ecclesiastical History_, with
important additions, in four volumes.
He published an abridgment of the _History of England_, in four volumes.
He compiled and published a _Compendium of Natural Philosophy_, in five
volumes.
He arranged and published a collection of moral and sacred poems, in
three volumes.
He published an abridgment of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, with notes. He
published an abridgment of Young's _Night Thoughts_.
He wrote and published a commentary on the whole Bible in four large
volumes, but the portion on the Old Testament was rendered almost
worthless by the abridgment of the notes by the printer in order to get
them within a given compass.
He compiled a complete dictionary of the English language, much used in
his day. He compiled and published a history of Rome. He published
selections from the Latin classics for the use of students.
He published an abridgment of Goodwin's _Treatise of Justification_. He
abridged and published in two volumes Brooke's _Fool of Quality_.
He wrote a good-sized work on electricity. He prepared and published
three medical works for the common people; one entitled _Primitive
Physic_ was highly esteemed in the old country. He compiled and
published six volumes of church music. His poetical works, in connection
with those of his brother Charles, are said to have amounted to not less
than forty volumes. Charles composed the larger part, but they passed
under the revision of John, without which we doubt if Charles Wesley's
hymns would have been what they are--the most beautiful and
soul-inspiring in the English language.
In addition to all this there are seven large octavo volumes of sermons,
letters, controversial papers, journals, etc. It is said that Mr.
Wesley's works, including translations and abridgments, amounted to more
than two hundred volumes, for we have not given here a complete list of
his publications. To this must be added:
4. His pastoral labors. It is doubtful if any pastor in these times does
more pastoral work than did Mr. Wesley. He speaks frequently of these
labors. In London he visits all the members, and from house to house
exhorts and comforts them. For some time he visited all the "Bands" and
"Select Societies," appointing all the band and class leaders. He had
under his personal care tens of thousands of souls.
To these multiplied labors he added the establishment of schools,
building of chapels, raising of funds to carry on the work, and a
special care over the whole movement. It may be affirmed that neither in
his travels, his literary labors, his preaching, nor in his pastoral
supervision of the flock of Christ has he often, if ever, been
surpassed. "Few men could have traveled as much as he, had they omitted
all else. Few could have preached as much without either travel or
study. And few could have written and published as much had they avoided
both travel and preaching." It is not too much to say that among
uninspired men one of more extraordinary character than John Wesley
never lived!
It may be asked, How was he able to accomplish so much? He improved
every moment of every day to the very best advantage.
Mr. Fletcher, who for some time was his traveling companion, says: "His
diligence is matchless. Though oppressed with the weight of seventy
years and the care of more than thirty thousand souls, he shames still,
by his unabated zeal and immense labors, all the young ministers of
England, perhaps of Christendom. He has generally blown the Gospel
trumpet and ridden twenty miles before the most of the professors who
despise his labors have left their downy pillows. As he begins the day,
the week, the year, so he concludes them, still intent upon extensive
services for the glory of the Redeemer and the good of souls."
In order to save time he, in the first place, ascertained how much sleep
he needed; and when once settled he never varied from it to the end of
life. He rose at four in the morning and retired at ten in the evening,
never losing at any time, he says, "ten minutes by wakefulness." The
first hour of each day was devoted to private devotions; then every
succeeding hour and moment was employed in earnest labor. His motto was,
"Always in haste, but never in a hurry." "I have," he says, "no time to
be in a hurry. Leisure and I have taken leave of each other."
He makes the remarkable statement that ten thousand cares were no more
weight to his mind than ten thousand hairs to his head. "I am never
tired with writing, preaching, or traveling."
With all his travel, labor, and care, he declares that he "enjoyed more
hours of private retirement than any man in England."
At the beginning of his extraordinary career he became the most rigid
economist. Having thirty pounds a year, he lived on twenty-eight, and
gave away two. The next year he received sixty pounds; he still lived on
twenty-eight, and gave away thirty-two. The following year, out of
ninety pounds, he gave away sixty-two, and the next year ninety-two
pounds out of one hundred and twenty.