_MISSION TO GEORGIA. 1735‒””””1737._
[Sidenote: 1735 Age 32]
WESLEY’S father died on the 25th of April, 1735.
Immediately after that event, the chief of the Oxford Methodists were
widely scattered: Gambold was a clergyman at Stanton-Harcourt; Ingham
became a curate in Essex; Whitefield, though not ordained, went on
an evangelistic tour to Gloucester, Bristol, and other places;[138]
Broughton was chaplain at the Tower; and the two Wesleys repaired to
the metropolis, where they were the guests of James Hutton, or rather
of James Hutton’s father, in Westminster.
Mr. Hutton was now in the twentieth year of his age. At Oxford he had
met with the Wesley brothers, and had invited them to visit him. His
father was an ordained clergyman of the Church of England; but, not
being able to take the oaths at the accession of George I., he had
resigned his Church preferments, and now kept a boarding school in a
house next door to that of Wesley’s brother Samuel. Here, on Sunday
evenings, the venerable man held meetings, at which he read, and
prayed, and sung with penitents; and here Wesley preached a sermon on
“One thing is needful,” which was the means of converting both James
Hutton and his sister.[139]
Just at this juncture, Dr. John Burton, of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, was evincing great interest in the colonisation of Georgia.
Three years before, he had preached and published a sermon, with an
appendix on the state of the Georgian settlement. He now met with
Wesley in London, and introduced him to Oglethorpe, who strongly urged
the high church Methodist to undertake a mission to the infant colony.
Wesley took counsel with his brother Samuel; asked the advice of
William Law; and went to Manchester to consult his friends Clayton and
Byrom. Thence he proceeded to Epworth, and laid the proposal before his
widowed mother, who replied: “Had I twenty sons, I should rejoice if
they were all so employed.”
On September 8 Dr. Burton wrote to him pressing him to consent to go.
The doctor told him that “plausible and popular doctors of divinity
were not the men wanted for Georgia; for the ease, luxury, and levity
in which they were accustomed to indulge disqualified them for such a
work.” He and the Georgian trustees wished for men who were “inured
to contempt of the ornaments and conveniences of life, to bodily
austerities, and to serious thoughts;” and such he considered Wesley.
Ten days after the date of this letter Wesley accepted the proposal,
and Burton expressed his pleasure, and added, “You have too much
steadiness of mind to be disturbed by the light scoffs of the idle
and profane.”[140] In another long letter (hitherto unpublished),
dated Eton College, September 28, 1735, Dr. Burton, after reminding
Wesley that he will have a fine opportunity for usefulness during
the voyage to Georgia, proceeds to recommend him, on his arrival, to
visit from house to house, and preach everywhere. He tells him that
“some of the colonists are ignorant, and most of them are disposed to
licentiousness.” He adds: “You will find abundant room for the exercise
of patience and prudence, as well as piety. One end for which we were
associated was the conversion of negro slaves. As yet, nothing has been
attempted in this way; but a door is opened. The Purisburghers have
purchased slaves; they act under our influence; and Mr. Oglethorpe will
think it advisable to begin there. You see the harvest truly is great.
With regard to your behaviour and manner of address, you will keep in
mind the pattern of St. Paul, who became ‘all things to all men that he
might gain some.’ In every case, distinguish between what is essential
and what is merely circumstantial to Christianity; between what is
indispensable and what is variable; between what is of Divine and what
is of human authority. I mention this, because men are apt to deceive
themselves in such cases; and we see the traditions and ordinances of
men frequently insisted on with more vigour than the commandments of
God to which they are subordinate.”
This was good advice, and, in Wesley’s case, not unneeded. Sixteen days
after the date of Dr. Burton’s letter, Wesley embarked, taking with
him five hundred and fifty copies of a treatise on the Lord’s Supper,
besides other books,—“the gift of several Christian friends for the use
of the settlers in Georgia.”[141]
James Edward Oglethorpe was the third son of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe,
of Godalming, Surrey. At a suitable age he entered the army, and became
secretary and aide-de-camp to Prince Eugene. In 1722 he succeeded
to his father’s estate, and obtained a seat in parliament, which he
retained nearly thirty years. From the first, he showed himself to be
a steady and faithful friend of humanity. These were days of harsh
government. The gallows was the penalty for petty thefts; and each
year, at least four thousand unhappy men in Great Britain were immured
in prison for the misfortune of being poor. A small debt was quite
enough to expose a struggling man to a perpetuity of imprisonment; and
an indiscreet bargain doomed many a well-meaning, miserable dupe to
lifelong confinement. Oglethorpe obtained a parliamentary committee, to
inquire into the state of prisons; the result of which was that a large
number of debtors were released from confinement, and restored to light
and to liberty. Being released, it was a serious question what to do
with them.
It so happened that, though the whole of the eastern seaboard of
America seemed to be already parcelled out among companies and
colonists, there was still remaining a comparatively small strip of
country, intervening between South Carolina and Florida, and situated
between the river Alatamaha on the south and the river Savannah on
the north, and having a sea-coast stretching a distance of sixty or
seventy miles. This strip of land was a wilderness over which England
held only a nominal jurisdiction; but it occurred to Oglethorpe and
his friends to plant in this sunny clime those children of misfortune
whom they had released from prison, but who were still without food
and shelter. Accordingly, on the 9th of June, 1732, a charter was
obtained from George II., erecting this thin slice of America into
the province of Georgia, and appointing Oglethorpe and twenty other
gentlemen (of whom Dr. Burton was one) trustees to hold the same
for a period of one and twenty years, “in trust for the poor.” The
benevolence of England was aroused. The trustees set an example of
princely liberality by their private subscriptions; the Bank of England
presented a donation of £10,000; an equal amount was voted by the House
of Commons; and the total sum raised, with but little effort, and
almost without solicitation, was £36,000. Within five months after the
signing of the charter, the first company of emigrants, one hundred
and twenty in number, set sail, with Oglethorpe as their commander,
and the Rev. Henry Herbert, a clergyman of the Established Church, as
their minister. At the commencement of the month of February, 1733,
the colonists reached the high bluff on which Savannah is now erected,
and encamped near the edge of the river. The streets of the intended
town were laid out with the greatest regularity; and the houses were
to be constructed on one model,—each a frame of sawn timber, measuring
sixteen feet by twenty-four, its sides to be enclosed with unplaned
boards, and its floor to be of rough deals, and its roof of shingle.
Each freeholder was allotted fifty acres of ground, five of which were
near Savannah, and the remaining forty-five farther off. Thus began
the commonwealth of Georgia. The humane reformer of prison life was
already the father of a state. A large number of Indians met him to
make an alliance with his colony; the meeting was friendly; to each
chief he gave a laced coat, a hat, and a shirt; and to their attendants
gunpowder, bullets, linen, tobacco, pipes, tape, and eight kegs of rum,
to carry home as presents to their respective towns. In a letter,
dated June 9, 1733, Oglethorpe states that a door was opened for the
conversion of the Indians; and nothing seemed to be wanting but a
minister who understood their language: in action and expression, they
were masters of eloquence, and many of their speeches were equal to
those which scholars most admire in the Greek and Roman writings.[142]
The next company of emigrants belonged to a different class. About
a year before the charter for the Georgian colony was granted, a
remarkable revival of religion took place at Saltzburg, in Germany.
By merely reading the Bible, above twenty thousand people were led
to renounce Popery and to embrace the Reformed religion. The popish
priests complained to the Archbishop of Saltzburg that these Protestant
converts assembled in various places, and sang hymns and offered
prayers. The archbishop published an edict prohibiting such assemblies,
upon pain of fines, corporal punishments, and even death itself. The
new converts, however, still assembled as before; and now his serene
highness the archbishop let loose his partisans, and commenced a
murderous persecution, which drove thousands of innocent, unoffending,
godly people into exile. Numbers were dragged to prison; some were led
about with ropes round their necks; others had their hands so tightly
tied with cords behind their backs that the blood spurted from their
finger ends. The archbishop’s soldiers struck some of them in the face
with their fists, calling them “heretic dogs and hell-hounds.” One poor
fellow was fined seventy florins for singing a Protestant psalm of
praise. Protestant preachers were called “murderers, buffle-heads, and
children of the devil;” and the Protestant doctrine was stigmatised as
“faith for swine and stinking goats.” Every one who embraced Luther’s
doctrines “would be roasted in hell;” and the moment any one read his
books the reader “became an offering to the devil.”[143]
What was the result? The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts heard of these poor persecuted Protestants, and
proposed to them to emigrate to Georgia. Thousands of them had fled
from Saltzburg; and others were still in prison there, fed with bread
and water, and employing themselves in praying and singing psalms.
Large numbers were taken into service by Protestants at Augsburg and
other places; and one section of the fugitives embraced the proposal
just mentioned, and on October 31, 1733, set out for Georgia. After a
discourse, prayer, and benedictions, and well supplied with Bibles,
hymns, catechisms, and books of devotion, they began their pilgrimage,
one wagon conveying all the chattels that they had, and two others
their feebler companions and their little ones. We need not stop to
tell the charities that cheered them on their journey,—how they entered
Frankfort, two by two, in solemn procession, singing sacred songs,—and
how they were joined at Rotterdam by the preachers Bolzius and Gronau,
both disciplined in piety at the Orphan House of Professor Francke. Six
days brought them to Dover, where several of the Georgian trustees met
them and provided for their wants; and on January 8, 1734, they set
sail, singing the “Te Deum” and praising God with both lips and hearts.
The Saltzburghers arrived in Georgia in the month of March, met with
Oglethorpe, and chose a settlement twenty-one miles from Savannah,
where there were “rivers, little hills, clear brooks, cool springs,
a fertile soil, and plenty of grass.” At Charlestown, where they
first landed, they ascertained that in the province of Carolina there
were thirty thousand negroes, all of them slaves, working six days
in the week for their owners without pay, and allowed to work on the
Sundays for themselves. Near Savannah, they found a beautiful garden
of ten acres, already planted with thriving orange-trees, olives,
mulberries, figs, peaches, cabbages, peas, and pulse. The spot which
they had chosen as their settlement, and to which they gave the name of
Ebenezer, was surrounded by vast forests of cedars, walnuts, cypresses,
and oaks, with wild vines running to the top of the highest trees.
As to game, there were eagles, turkeys, roebucks, goats, deer, wild
cows, horses, hares, partridges, and buffaloes without number. The
Saltzburghers built tents made of the bark of trees, constructed roads
and bridges, set up religious services, were furnished with domestic
utensils and with cattle, and were soon a prosperous community.
In April Oglethorpe returned to England, bringing with him Tomo-chichi
and other Indians, to invigorate the confidence of England in the
destiny of Georgia. Parliament continued its benefactions, the king
expressed interest in a province which bore his name, and the youngest
child of England’s colonial enterprise won universal favour.
The next company of emigrants were a number of Scotch Highlanders,
who founded New Inverness, in Darien; the next a number of Moravians,
of whom more anon; and the next after that, the company with whom
Wesley sailed. Wesley’s predecessor in Georgia was the Rev. Samuel
Quincy,[144] a native of Massachusetts, but educated in England. Mr.
Quincy wishing to return to England, the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent Wesley as his successor, at a salary
of £50 a year.[145] The chief object in founding the colony was to grow
flax and hemp, to breed silkworms, and to raise raw silk.[146] The
common seal of the corporation had on one side a group of silkworms at
their toils, with the motto, _Non sibi, sed aliis_; and on the other,
two figures reposing on urns, emblematic of the boundary rivers; and
between them the genius of “Georgia Augusta,” with the cap of liberty
on her head, a spear in one hand, and the horn of plenty in the other.
It must be added that in this young community ardent spirits were
prohibited, and the introduction of slavery forbidden.
The Transatlantic colonies existing in 1735 were nothing more than a
mere fringe skirting the eastern coast of that vast continent. The
Spaniards were in Florida; the English in Georgia, the Carolinas,
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New England; and the French in
Canada. This was all. Excepting these few feeble colonial settlements,
the whole of the immense American continent—which, measuring from New
York to California, and from Lake Superior to New Orleans, extends in
one direction 3300 miles and in the other 1300 miles—was one vast,
rich, but uncultivated wilderness, the home of myriads of birds and
beasts, and sparsely inhabited by savage Indians. Bancroft enumerates
above forty Indian tribes, or nations, embracing about 180,000 souls,
whose wigwams and hunting grounds were all situated on the eastern side
of the Mississippi. The men were warriors, and the women labourers.
Their education was acquired solely in the school of nature, and their
chief almanac was the flight of birds, announcing the progress of the
seasons. They kept no herds, and were never shepherds, but depended
for their food on the chase, the fisheries, and a little farming.
Their scanty clothing was made of skins, and their feet protected by
soft mocassins. Their principal ornaments were strings of shells, the
fairest feathers of the turkey, the skin of the rattlesnake, and an
enemy’s scalp. Their skins were oft tattooed; and, when making visits,
they painted themselves gloriously, delighting especially in vermilion.
They worshipped an unseen power pervading everything, which they called
the Great Spirit, and had their sorcerers, medicine men, and prophets.
Faith in the spirit world, as revealed by dreams, was universal; and
festivals in honour of the dead were frequent.
What became of these Indians? and where are their descendants? To
answer these questions would be to pass through scenes of horror
without a parallel, and to write a history of blood.
Such was America in 1735. What is it now, and what is likely to be its
future? Who could have imagined that, in one hundred and thirty years,
this huge wilderness would be transformed into one of the greatest
nations upon earth; and that the Methodism, begun at Savannah, would
pervade the continent, and, ecclesiastically considered, become the
mightiest power existing? But we must now return to Wesley and his
Georgian mission.
In a letter, dated October 10, 1735, Wesley gives his reasons for going
to Georgia. He writes:—
“My chief motive 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. They have no comments to construe away the
text; no vain philosophy to corrupt it; no luxurious, sensual,
covetous, ambitious expounders to soften its unpleasing truths.
They have no party, no interest to serve, and are therefore fit
to receive the gospel in its simplicity. They are as little
children, humble, willing to learn, and eager to do, the will
of God.
“A right faith will, I trust, by the mercy of God, open the way
for a right practice; especially when most of those temptations
are removed which here so easily beset me. It will be no small
thing to be able, without fear of giving offence, to live on
water and the fruits of the earth. An Indian hut affords no
food for curiosity, no gratification of the desire of grand, or
new, or pretty things. The pomp and show of the world have no
place in the wilds of America.
“Further: I hope 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; and the same faithfulness I hope
to show in dispensing my Master’s goods, if it please Him to
send me to those who, like His first followers, have all things
common. What a guard is here against that root of evil, the
love of money, and all the vile attractions that spring from it!
“I then hope to know what it is to love my neighbour as
myself, and to feel the powers of that second motive to visit
the heathens, even the desire to impart to them what I have
received,—a saving knowledge of the gospel of Christ. I have
been a grievous sinner from my youth up, and am yet laden with
foolish and hurtful desires; but I am assured, if I be once
converted myself, God will then employ me both to strengthen my
brethren, and to preach His name to the gentiles.
“I cannot hope to attain the same degree of holiness here,
which I may there. I shall lose nothing I desire to keep. I
shall still have food to eat, and raiment to put on; and, if
any man have a desire of other things, let him know that the
greatest blessing that can possibly befall him is, to be cut
off from all occasions of gratifying those desires which,
unless speedily rooted out, will drown his soul in everlasting
perdition.”[147]
Exception may fairly be taken to some of the sentiments contained in
this letter. The Indians were not the docile children that Wesley
imagined; nor is it true that life in heathendom is more favourable to
the attainment of holiness than life in Christendom: but we neither
have space nor wish to criticise Wesley’s views, our chief object being
to represent him as he represents himself.
Wesley went on board the _Simmonds_, off Gravesend, on October 14,
1735; and, the day following, he wrote a characteristic letter,
(probably his last before leaving the English waters,) to his brother
Samuel, who was now head master of the school at Tiverton. After
telling him that, two days before, he had presented to the queen his
father’s “Dissertations on the Book of Job,” and had received “many
good words and smiles,” he continues:—
“Elegance of style is not to be weighed against purity of
heart; therefore, whatever has any tendency to impair that
purity is not to be tolerated, much less recommended, for
the sake of that elegance. But of this sort are most of the
classics usually read in great schools: many of them tending
to inflame the lusts of the flesh, and more to feed the lust
of the eye and the pride of life. I beseech you therefore,
by the mercies of God, who would have us holy as He is holy,
that you banish all such poison from your school; and that you
introduce, in their place, such Christian authors as will work
together with you in building up your flock in the knowledge
and love of God. For assure yourself, dear brother, you are
even now called to the converting of heathens as well as I. So
many souls are committed to your charge by God, to be prepared
for a happy eternity. You are to instruct them, not only in the
beggarly elements of Greek and Latin; but much more, in the
gospel. You are to labour with all your might to convince them,
that Christianity is not a negation, or an external thing, but
a new heart, a mind conformed to that of Christ, ‘faith working
by love,’”[148]
Two days after writing the above, Wesley, in order to converse with
his German fellow-passengers, began to study that language; and three
days later, believing that self-denial might be helpful to his piety,
he wholly left off the use of flesh and wine, and confined himself to
a vegetable diet, chiefly rice and biscuit. This he continued during
the whole of his residence in Georgia; but on his return to England,
for the sake of some who thought he made it a point of conscience, he
resumed his former mode of living, and practised it to the end of life,
except during a two years’ interim, when he again became vegetarian and
teetotaler, because Dr. Cheyne assured him that this was the only way
to “be free from fevers.”[149]
Wesley is on board—who are the chief of his fellow voyagers? His
brother Charles, Benjamin Ingham, James Edward Oglethorpe, Charles
Delamotte, and David Nitschmann. Two others had intended going, namely,
Westley Hall and Matthew Salmon; and both had been recently ordained
with reference to the Georgian mission. At the last moment, however,
Salmon’s friends pounced upon him, and sent him, almost forcibly, to
his parental home in Cheshire; while Hall, who had actually hired
a coach to carry him and his wife (Wesley’s sister) to Gravesend,
where the ship was lying, received, as he was about to start, the
intelligence that his family were not only opposed to his embarking,
but had procured him a Church benefice. This so changed his missionary
views and feelings, that he instantly countermanded the order for the
coach, put aside all his luggage and preparations for the mission,
and, hastening to General Oglethorpe, told him he had resolved not to
go.[150]
Of Charles Wesley nothing need be said; his fame is everywhere.
Benjamin Ingham was a young Yorkshireman, twenty-three years of age,
and, for the last three months, had been preaching in the villages
surrounding the metropolis with singular success. “Fast, and pray,”
wrote Wesley at the beginning of September: “fast and pray; and then
send me word whether you dare go with me to the Indians.” Ingham at
first thought there were heathens enough at home; but, a fortnight
after, he acceded to Wesley’s proposal; and, with as pure and devoted a
heart as ever throbbed in missionary’s bosom, away he went to convert
the Indians in America.
Oglethorpe has been already mentioned. Suffice it to add, that though
chivalrous in the highest degree, and the very soul of benevolence and
honour,—though brave and loyal, and full of enthusiastic feeling,—he
was irascible and sometimes rash, talkative, tinged with vanity, and
somewhat boastful. Like many other public men, he became the victim
of unmerited censure and injudicious praise. The last thirty years of
his life were chiefly spent in the society of literary and learned
men. He died in 1785; and Hannah More, in a letter dated a year before
his death, spoke of him thus: “He is much above ninety years old, and
the finest figure you ever saw. He perfectly realises all my ideas of
Nestor. His literature is great, his knowledge of the world extensive,
and his faculties as bright as ever. He is quite a _preux chevalier_,
heroic, romantic, and full of the old gallantry.”
Charles Delamotte was a young man of twenty-one, the son of a Middlesex
magistrate; and was so attached to Wesley, that when he heard he was
about to embark for Georgia he determined to go with him, and to act
as his servant. His father, naturally enough, strongly objected,
and offered to settle him in a handsome business; but the youth was
obstinate, and after obtaining a partial consent from his parents and
family, set sail with Wesley, lived with him, served under him as a son
in the gospel, did much good, and endured great hardships for the sake
of Christ. On his return to England, he became a Moravian, settled at
Barrow-upon-Humber, where he spent a long life of piety and peace, and
died in 1796.[151]
David Nitschmann was born in Moravia, and was now in the sixtieth year
of his age. In 1720 a remarkable revival of religion took place in the
town where David lived; but, by the intervention of the Jesuits, the
meetings of the new converts were prohibited, and many who attended
them were imprisoned in stables, cellars, and other offensive places.
A police officer entered Nitschmann’s house, where one hundred and
fifty of these godly people were assembled, and seized all the books
within his reach. The congregation at once struck up a stanza of one of
Luther’s hymns:—
“If the whole world with devils swarmed,
That threatened us to swallow,
We will not fear, for we are armed,
And victory will follow.”
Twenty persons, including David, all heads of respectable families,
were arrested and sent to gaol. For three days David was deprived of
food, and was so cruelly ironed that the blood spurted from his nose
and mouth, and oozed from his very pores. After some time, he escaped
from his horrid dungeon, and fled for safety to his Moravian friends at
Herrnhut. David was now a Moravian bishop, and, accompanied by about
thirty Moravians, was on his way to visit the congregations of the
Brethren in Georgia.
Such were the chief of Wesley’s fellow voyagers. As already stated,
they embarked at Gravesend on October 14, 1735; but it was not
until December 10 that they fairly started.[152] First of all, they
encountered a storm in the Downs; then, on arriving at Cowes, they had
to await the man-of-war that was to be their convoy.
The rules which Wesley and his friends observed during their long
voyage were as follows:—From four in the morning till five, they
employed in private prayer. From five to seven, they read the Bible
together, carefully comparing what they read with the writings of the
earliest ages. At seven, they breakfasted. At eight, they had public
prayers and expounded the lesson. From nine to twelve, Wesley usually
learned German, Delamotte studied Greek and navigation, Charles Wesley
wrote sermons, and Ingham gave instruction to the twelve children on
board. At twelve, they met together for mutual prayer, and to report
progress. About one, they dined; and from the time of dinner till four
in the afternoon, they read or spoke to certain of the passengers of
whom they had respectively taken charge. At four, they had evening
prayers, and either expounded the lesson, or catechized and instructed
the children in the presence of the congregation. From five to six was
again spent in private prayer. From six to seven they read, each in his
own cabin, to three different detachments of the English passengers, of
whom about eighty were on board. At seven, Wesley joined the Moravians
in their public service; while Ingham read, between the decks, to as
many as desired to hear. At eight, the four faithful friends met in
private to exhort and instruct each other; and, between nine and ten,
they went to bed without mats and blankets, where neither the roaring
of the sea nor the rocking of the ship could rob them of refreshing
rest.[153]
While detained at Cowes, Wesley, after careful instruction, baptized
four unbaptized Quakers.[154] Charles Wesley, being known to the
minister of the town, preached several times in the parish church
to large congregations; and, in the house of a poor woman, read to
the crowds which flocked to hear him. In other respects also their
detention was productive of good; for a gentleman who scoffed at
religion left the ship; the second mate, who was an insolent and ill
natured fellow, was expelled; and a young man was received on board,
who, for his piety, had been turned adrift by his rich parents, and had
been praying incessantly that he might be directed to a place where he
could have the advantage of public prayers and the holy sacrament.
On November 3, while walking in the Isle of Wight, the four friends
agreed upon the following resolutions, which they solemnly subscribed:—
“IN the name of God, Amen! We, whose names are underwritten,
being fully convinced that it is impossible, either to
promote the work of God among the heathen, without an entire
union among ourselves, or that such a union should subsist,
unless each one will give up his single judgment to that of
the majority, do agree, by the help of God:—first, that none
of us will undertake anything of importance without first
proposing it to the other three;—secondly, that whenever our
judgments differ, any one shall give up his single judgment
or inclination to the others;—thirdly, that in case of an
equality, after begging God’s direction, the matter shall be
decided by lot.
JOHN WESLEY,
CHARLES WESLEY,
BENJAMIN INGHAM,
CHARLES DELAMOTTE.”[155]
Of the Moravians on board, Ingham, in a long letter to his mother,
wrote as follows:—“They are a good, devout, peaceable, and
heavenly-minded people; and almost the only time you know they are in
the ship is when they are harmoniously singing the praises of the great
Creator, which they constantly do twice a day. Their example was very
edifying. They are more like the primitive Christians than any church
now existing, for they retain both the faith, practice, and discipline
delivered by the apostles. They have regularly ordained bishops,
priests, and deacons. Baptisms, confirmation, and the eucharist are
duly administered. Discipline is strictly exercised, without respect
of persons. They all submit themselves to their pastors in everything.
They live together in perfect love and peace, having for the present
all things common. They are more ready to serve their neighbours
than themselves. In business they are diligent, in all their dealings
strictly just; and in everything they behave themselves with meekness,
sweetness, and humility.”
From the same letter we learn that, on October 18, Wesley and Ingham
began to read the Old Testament together; and, at the rate of between
nine and ten chapters daily, finished it before they arrived at
Georgia. On the day following, Wesley commenced preaching without
notes; and during the passage, in a series of sermons, he went through
the whole of our Saviour’s sermon on the mount, and, every sabbath, had
a weekly sacrament.
The voyage, from Cowes to the Savannah river, was made in fifty-seven
days. Oglethorpe seems to have acted with great kindness. On one
occasion, when some of the officers and gentlemen on board took
liberties with Wesley and his friends, Oglethorpe indignantly
exclaimed, “What mean you, sirs? Do you take these gentlemen for
tithe-pig parsons? They are gentlemen of learning and respectability.
They are my friends, and whoever offers an affront to them insults
me.”[156] This was quite enough, and, ever after, the poor Methodists
were treated with respect. Oglethorpe was irritable, but noble-hearted
and generous. Wesley, hearing an unusual noise in the general’s cabin,
entered to inquire the cause; on which the angry soldier cried: “Excuse
me, Mr. Wesley; I have met with a provocation too great to bear. This
villain, Grimaldi, an Italian servant, has drunk nearly the whole
of my Cyprus wine, the only wine that agrees with me, and several
dozens of which I had provided for myself. But I am determined to be
revenged. The rascal shall be tied hand and foot, and be carried to
the man-of-war; for I never forgive.” “Then,” said Wesley with great
calmness, “then I hope, sir, you never sin.” Oglethorpe was confounded,
his vengeance was gone, he put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a
bunch of keys, and threw them at Grimaldi, saying, “There, villain!
take my keys, and behave better for the future.”[157]
The voyage to Georgia was not without danger. On the 17th of January,
the sea broke over the ship, and, shaking it from stem to stern,
brought down the mainyard upon the decks, and dashed through the cabin
windows. Six days after, an immense wave vaulted over Wesley’s head,
and drenched him to the skin. Two days later, the winds roared, and
the ship rocked to and fro with the utmost violence. The sea sparkled
and smoked as if on fire, and the air literally blazed with lightning.
The mainsail was torn to tatters, and the companion swept away.[158]
Just at the time this occurred, the Moravians were engaged in their
evening service, and were singing a psalm of praise. As usual, Wesley
was with them. The English passengers began screaming; but the Germans
calmly continued singing. Wesley was struck with this, and asked one
of them, after the service was concluded, “Were you not afraid?” He
answered, “I thank God, no.” Wesley asked again, “But were not your
women and children afraid?” “No,” replied the Moravian, “our women and
children are not afraid to die.” From the Moravians Wesley went among
the terror-struck English, and pointed out the difference between him
that feareth God and him that feareth Him not; and then concludes his
account of the storm by saying, “This was the most glorious day which
I had ever seen.” Eleven days after, on February 5, 1736, they safely
cast anchor in the Savannah river, and were welcomed by the firing
of cannon, and by all the freeholders, constables, and tithingmen,
presenting arms; while Oglethorpe’s first act was to give orders to
provide materials to build a church.[159]
Savannah was now a town of about forty houses,[160] standing on a flat
bluff, rising forty or fifty feet above the crescent river flowing at
its base. On the eastern side of the town was a swamp, on the west a
wood, and on the south a forest of pines, fourteen miles in length. The
principal buildings were a courthouse, which served also for a church,
a log-built prison, a storehouse, a public mill for grinding corn,
and a residence for the trustees’ steward. All the houses were of the
same size. There were still standing the four beautiful pines, under
which Oglethorpe encamped when he landed with the first settlers, and
which for nearly a twelvemonth he used as a sleeping place. At the
distance of about half a mile was a small Indian town, in which large
numbers of the Creek nation were occasionally accustomed to assemble.
The climate was exceedingly salubrious, the land rich, and the water
good.[161] Every male emigrant was allowed a watch coat, a musket, a
bayonet, a hatchet, a hammer, a hand saw, a shovel, a hoe, a gimlet,
a knife, an iron pot, a pair of pothooks, and a frying-pan: also for
his maintenance, during the first year, 312 lbs. of beef or pork, 104
of rice, 104 of Indian corn or peas, 104 of meal, one pint of strong
beer per day, 52 quarts of molasses, 16 lbs. of cheese, 12 of butter,
eight oz. of spice, 12 lbs. of sugar, four gallons of vinegar, 24 lbs.
of salt, 12 quarts of lamp oil, one lb. of cotton thread, and 12 lbs of
soap. Proportionate allowances were made to women and children.[162]
Such facts will help the reader to imagine the kind of home and society
which Wesley had in Georgia.
The only other towns in Georgia, even when Wesley came back to England,
were Frederica, in St. Simon’s Island, one hundred miles south of
Savannah; Darien, the settlement of the Scotch Highlanders, at a
distance of about eighty miles; New Ebenezer, consisting of sixty huts,
nineteen miles; Highgate and Hampstead, with fourteen families, four
or five miles southwest, and Thunderbolt, with three families, six
miles southeast. Such were the English settlements in Georgia. All the
rest of that large territory was woods, swamps, and prairies, the home
of savage Indians, and of savage beasts. The Georgian Indians had no
literature, no religion, and no civil government. Every one did what
was right in his own eyes; and, if his neighbour felt aggrieved, he
would warily do his best to shoot him, scalp him, or cut off his ears.
All of them, except perhaps the Choctaws, were gluttons, drunkards,
thieves, and liars; implacable, unmerciful, murderers of fathers,
murderers of mothers, murderers of their own children. Husbands,
strictly speaking, the women had none, for the men left their so called
wives at pleasure; and the wives, in return for such desertion, would
cut the throats of all the children they had had by their faithless
swains. The Choctaws possessed a large extent of land, eight or nine
hundred miles west of Savannah, had many well inhabited towns, and six
thousand warriors. The Chicasaws, dwelling among meadows, springs, and
rivers, six or seven hundred miles in the interior, had ten towns, and
about nine hundred fighting men,—all of them eating, drinking, and
smoking almost day and night, extremely indolent except in war, and
torturing and burning their prisoners with the most fiendish cruelty.
The Cherokees lived in a mountainous, fruitful, and pleasant country,
three or four hundred miles from Savannah, had fifty-two towns, and
above three thousand men of war. The Uchees had only one small town,
near two hundred miles distant from the Savannah settlement, and were
hated by most and despised by all the other Indian tribes, for their
cowardice and superlative diligence in thieving. The Creeks were
located at a distance of about four hundred miles, had a well watered
country, and fifteen hundred fighting men, and, of all the Indians,
were the most infected with the insatiate love of drink, as well
as other European vices. In such a country John Wesley lived, from
February 5, 1736, to December 2, 1737.
One of the first to meet Wesley on the shores of Georgia was the well
known Moravian elder, August Gottlieb Spangenberg. Wesley asked his
advice how to act in his new sphere of labour. Spangenberg replied,
“My brother, I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the
witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with
your spirit, that you are a child of God?” Wesley was surprised at
such questions. They were new to him. He was at a loss how to answer.
Spangenberg continued, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” This was easier,
and Wesley answered, “I know He is the Saviour of the world.” “True,”
said Spangenberg; “but do you know He has saved _you_?” Wesley was
again perplexed, but answered, “I hope He has died to save me.”
Spangenberg only added, “Do you know yourself?” Wesley replied, “I
do.” An odd conversation, leaving Spangenberg in doubt respecting the
real conversion of the Oxford priest, and leading Wesley to think of
doctrines which took him more than the next two years to understand.
Nine days after his arrival, Wesley and his friends were visited by
Tomo-Chichi (whom Oglethorpe had brought to England some time before)
and half-a-dozen other Indians. Informed of their arrival, the young
clergymen met them in their gowns and cassocks. The chief bid them
welcome, said he would assemble the great men of his nation, and
expressed a wish that they would teach his children; while his wife
gave them a jar of milk, as emblematic of her wish that they might feed
the Indians with milk, for they were but children, and a jar of honey,
with the hope that the missionaries would be sweet to them.[163]
Ingham and Charles Wesley went off with Oglethorpe to lay out the town
of Frederica; and Wesley and Delamotte, having no house of their own to
live in, lodged, during the first month, with Spangenberg, Nitschmann,
and other Moravian friends. Thus, from morning to night, were they
mixed up with these godly people, and had ample opportunity to observe
their spirit and behaviour. Wesley writes: “They were always employed,
always cheerful themselves, and in good humour with one another;
they had put away all anger, and strife, and wrath, and bitterness,
and clamour, and evil speaking; they walked worthy of the vocation
wherewith they were called, and adorned the gospel of our Lord in all
things.” Wesley was present at the election and ordination of Anton
Seifart[164] as a bishop for Georgia, the simplicity and solemnity
of the service making him almost forget the seventeen hundred years
between, and imagine himself in one of those assemblies where form and
state were not, but Paul the tentmaker or Peter the fisherman presided,
with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Who can estimate the
influence of such intercourse in moulding the subsequent character and
life of this inquiring missionary?
Mr. Quincy, Wesley’s predecessor, having now removed to Carolina,
Wesley took possession of the wood-built rectory, and, on March 7th,
commenced his ministry at Savannah by preaching a sermon from 1
Corinthians xiii. 3, in which he introduced two death-bed scenes,—that
of his father at Epworth, and another which he had witnessed at
Savannah, and which was “a spectacle worthy to be seen of God and
angels and men.”[165] He officiated at nine in the morning, at twelve,
and again in the afternoon;[166] and announced his design to administer
the sacrament on every Sunday and on every holiday.
A few days subsequent to this, writing to his mother, he remarked:—“We
are likely to stay here some months. The place is pleasant beyond
imagination, and exceeding healthful. I have not had a moment’s illness
of any kind since I set my foot upon the continent; nor do I know any
more than one of my seven hundred parishioners who is sick at this
time. Many of them indeed are, I believe, very angry already; for a
gentleman, no longer ago than last night (March 17), made a ball; but
the public prayers happening to begin about the same time, the church
was full, and the ballroom so empty that the entertainment could not
go forward. I should be heartily glad if any poor and religious men or
women of Epworth or Wroote would come over to me. General Oglethorpe
would give them land enough, and provisions gratis, till they could
live on the produce of it.”[167]
Wesley, in this letter, evidently considers the whole of the Georgian
settlements as his parish; for, so far from Savannah having at this
time a population of seven hundred souls, there was scarcely that
number in the whole of the settlements put together. Georgia was his
parish; for, Mr. Quincy being gone, he was the only minister of the
Church of England inducted into ministerial work in the Georgian
territory. Charles Wesley was Oglethorpe’s secretary; and though
Benjamin Ingham had gone with a few colonists to where Frederica was to
stand, Frederica itself as yet did not exist. Besides, Ingham’s visit
was intended to be but temporary, his mind being fully fixed upon a
mission to the Indians. Indeed, this was Wesley’s purpose also. Their
only object in quitting England was, not to preach to the colonists,
but to the Indians; and the reason why Wesley had begun to preach to
the English at Savannah was because Mr. Quincy, the minister of the
English, had left the colony, and they were now as sheep without a
shepherd; and also because, through the French on the one hand and the
Spaniards on the other, the Indians were at present in great confusion,
and had become so excited by French and Spanish plots and treachery
that it was not only dangerous to go among them, but, as Tomo-Chichi
told Wesley and his friends at the interview already mentioned, they
seemed determined not to hear “the great word” which the white man had
to teach.[168] In these two facts we find the reason, and the only
reason, why Wesley’s object in going to Georgia was not fulfilled; and
why, instead of preaching to the Indians in the woods, he spent his
time in preaching to the English at Savannah.
The commencement of Wesley’s ministry was auspicious. A fortnight after
preaching his first sermon, he wrote to his brother Charles as follows:
“I have hitherto no opposition at all; all is smooth, and fair, and
promising. Many seem to be awakened; all are full of respect and
commendation. We cannot see any cloud gathering. But this calm cannot
last: storms must come hither, too; and let them come, when we are
ready to meet them.”[169]
Wesley had lived so long in the tempest of opposition that it is no
wonder he felt it strange to find himself in the midst of an unbroken
calm, surrounded by nothing but “respect and commendation.” This was a
new experience, but it was soon ended.
Charles Wesley and Ingham were already in hot water at Frederica, and
the latter hurried off to Savannah for advice. It was only three weeks
since Wesley had there commenced his ministry; yet he had already
established daily morning and evening public prayers, and a weekly
communion; he had also formed a society, which met on Wednesday,
Friday, and Sunday nights, to read and pray and sing psalms together;
and Delamotte had begun to teach a few orphan children.[170] This was
a vigorous beginning, but now Wesley and Delamotte had to hasten to
Frederica, leaving Ingham to supply their place in the best way he
could.
Charles had been baptizing children by trine immersion, and
endeavouring to reconcile scolding women. Some of these termagants
had prejudiced Oglethorpe against him, and the poor secretary was now
treated with coldness, and even charged with mutiny. A woman, whose
husband had been put into confinement, blamed him for being the cause
of it, and threatened to be revenged upon him, by “exposing his d——d
hypocrisy and his prayers four times a day by beat of drum.”[171] While
all the others were provided with boards to sleep upon, he was left to
sleep upon the ground. His few well-wishers became afraid to speak to
him, and even his washerwoman refused in future to wash his linen.
Wesley and Delamotte left Savannah on April 4, and returned on April
20; having spent ten days on the voyage, and six in settling the
miserable squabbles that had sprung up among the palmetto huts of
Frederica.
On the day of his arrival, Wesley wrote to Oglethorpe as follows:—
“SAVANNAH, _April 20, 1736_.
“SAVANNAH never was so dear to me as now. I found so little
either of the form or power of godliness at Frederica, that I
am sincerely glad I am removed from it. There is none of those
who did run well whom I pity more than Mrs. Hawkins.[172] Her
treating me in such a manner would indeed have little affected
me, had my own interests only been concerned. I have been used
to be betrayed, scorned, and insulted, by those I had most
laboured to serve. But when I reflect on her condition, my
heart bleeds for her.”
Wesley then refers to the accusation against his brother, to the effect
that, by the frequency of his public prayers, he prevented the men
attending to their proper work, and interrupted the progress of the
town and colony. He shows the absurdity of this, by stating that, both
at Frederica and Savannah, not more than seven minutes were spent in
reading the public morning and evening prayers. Fourteen minutes daily,
in two public services, could hardly be considered an unreasonable
taxation of the people’s time. Wesley writes: “These cannot be termed
long prayers: no Christian assembly ever used shorter.” And then he
naively informs Oglethorpe that these short prayers had no repetitions
in them! We should think not![173]
Within a month after his return to Savannah, Wesley began to carry
out his high church principles. He refused to baptize a child of Mr.
Parker’s, second bailiff of the town, because the parents objected to
its being dipped. On Sundays, he divided the public prayers, according
to the original appointment of the Church; reading the morning service
at five; the communion office and a sermon at eleven; and the evening
service at three. He also commenced visiting his parishioners in order,
from house to house, setting apart for this purpose three hours every
day.
He had no sooner begun, however, than his brother, wearied with his
life at Frederica, and full of abhorrence at the false-heartedness of
the people,[174] unexpectedly presented himself at Savannah. Places
were exchanged, and John and Delamotte instantly started off to the
forsaken flock. They arrived at Frederica on May 22nd, and remained
until June 23rd. During this brief visit, Wesley read the commendatory
prayer over Mrs. Germain, at the point of death; made Mr. Lassel’s
will; arranged a small society-meeting, like that which had been
organised at Savannah; and reproved an officer of a man-of-war for
swearing. One of his congregation said to him: “I like nothing you do;
all your sermons are satires upon particular persons. Besides, we are
Protestants: but as for you, we cannot tell what religion you are of.
We never heard of such a religion before; we know not what to make of
it. And then your private behaviour: all the quarrels that have been
here since your arrival have been because of you; and there is neither
man nor woman in the town who minds a word you say.” The next day
Wesley returned to Savannah.
He was no sooner back than a large party of Indians came, including
several chiefs and an interpreter, with whom he had several interviews.
He now hoped that a door was opened for the fulfilment of his intention
to be a missionary among the heathen; but when he informed Oglethorpe
of his purpose, the general objected, on the ground that there was
great danger of his being taken or killed by the French, and that it
was inexpedient to leave Savannah without a minister. Wesley answered
that, though the trustees of Georgia had appointed him to the office of
minister of Savannah, this was done without his solicitation, desire,
or knowledge; and that he should not continue longer than until his way
was opened to go among the Indians. And so the matter ended.
On the 26th of July, after spending a little more than five months
in Georgia, his brother Charles embarked for England. At the same
time, Wesley went again to ill-natured Frederica, where he spent the
next twelve weeks. Here he read, with Delamotte, Bishop Beveridge’s
“_Pandectæ Canonum Conciliorum_,” and became more convinced than ever
that both particular and general councils may err. He set up a small
library; and as several Germans, through not understanding the English
tongue, were unable to join in the public service, he agreed to meet
them every day at noon, in his own house, where, in their own language,
he expounded to them a chapter of the New Testament, and prayed with
them. Finding, however, that his prospects of doing good at Frederica
became less and less, he returned to Savannah on the 31st of October,
where he continued until the beginning of 1737.
Meanwhile, Wesley’s friends in England did not forget him. The
following was from his old acquaintance, Mr. Morgan, and is now for the
first time given to the public.
“OXON, _November 27, 1735_.
“DEAR SIR,— ... Be pleased to let Mr. Ingham know that I
intend going to Yorkshire, if not hindered by my father. God
has made Mr. Dickison the instrument of awakening his landlord
and landlady. I read to them at Mr. Fox’s an hour every other
day, in the Bishop of Man’s Catechism. Mr. Fox and his wife,
especially the former, are most zealous Christians; and are
earnestly bent on going to Georgia. So is Mr. Dickison, who
is ‘an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.’ I do not
doubt but we shall be able to send you a colony of thorough
good Christians. I have undertaken the care of Bocardo. I go
there three days in the week, and Mr. Broughton a fourth. I
read every Sunday night to a cheerful number of Christians at
Mr. Fox’s. I could say a great deal respecting our meetings,
etc.; but I am obliged to steal even this time from the holy
Scriptures, in which I find more and more comfort every day.
Indeed, the Lord’s kingdom increaseth apace. My love to your
brother, and Mr. Ingham, and Mr. Delamotte; and best respects
to Mr. Oglethorpe. I should be very glad if you could spare me
some of your prayers, or anything else which may be of service
to me.
“I am, your brother in Christ Jesus,
“RICHARD MORGAN.
“To the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, in Georgia.”
Another unpublished letter lies before us, written by Sir John Thorold,
and breathing a most Christian spirit. Omitting what is purely
sentimental, we give the following extracts:—
“LONDON, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, _May 24, 1736_.
“DEAR SIR,—I am unwilling to lose the opportunity of writing
to you, by Capt. Thompson, and inquiring after the welfare of
yourself, your brother, Mr. Ingham, Mr. Delamotte, and the
whole colony of Georgia. I have read the journal of your voyage
to that new settlement, and can, with pleasure, discern the
footsteps of Divine Providence towards you.... Our dear friend
Mr. Broughton is curate at the Tower, and has undertaken to
preach to the poor prisoners in Ludgate every Tuesday in the
afternoon. Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Hervey propose to enter into
holy orders this next ordination. May they become burning and
shining lights in the Church! Sir John Phillips has been, for
several weeks, hindered from attending the societies, by reason
of sickness and infirmities. He piously allows Mr. Whitefield
£20 per annum. Several of Mr. Broughton’s late parishioners at
Cowley forget not the assembling of themselves together. Your
friends at Oxford continue to exhort and edify one another.
Tell me what progress you make in spiritualizing your flock;
and what probability there is of the Lord opening the door of
faith to the Indians.... May the God of love keep you all knit
together in the bond of charity, and may you at last receive a
beautiful crown at the Lord’s hand, and enter amongst angels
and archangels, to sing everlasting songs of praise to the Lord
Almighty. I desire your prayers for me and mine.
“J. THOROLD.”
The next was from James Hutton:—
“_September 3, 1736._
“DEAR SIR,—I am this day twenty-one years old. Mr. Whitefield
has taken orders, and is in town to supply Mr. Broughton’s
places at the Tower and Ludgate prison. Mr. Broughton reads
prayers every night to a religious society that meet in Wapping
chapel. Mr. Morgan is obliged by his father’s orders to study
physic at Leyden, where the name of Wesley stinks as well as
at Oxford. I had the happiness of seeing your good mother,
who came to town, in her way from Gainsborough, to Mr. Hall
first, and thence very soon to Tiverton. Mr. Law visited her
at Gainsborough, and again at London. Your mother desired her
blessing to you, and would have wrote, but had no time. She
prayed for you and blessed you. If all matters relating to
receiving your fellowship are not exact, write fresh ones,
and send over. Take care to inquire carefully and strictly
concerning the mission of the Moravian bishop. I will make what
inquiries I can. A great deal depends upon the validity of
ordinations.”[175]
At the same time, Hervey at Oxford wrote:—“I am still a most weak
corrupt creature. But, blessed be the unmerited mercy of God, and
thanks be to your never-to-be-forgotten example, that I am what I am!
You have been both a father and a friend to me. I heartily thank you,
as for all other favours, so especially for teaching me Hebrew.”[176]
William Chapman, a student of Pembroke College, wrote as follows:—“Your
kind concern and repeated endeavours for my spiritual good, while
at Oxford, will not suffer me to think that you have utterly lost
all remembrance of me. I sit every evening with Mr. Hervey, that
great champion of the Lord of hosts, and read five times a week to
a religious society in St. Ebbs’ parish. God and the angels be with
you!”[177]
Wesley, before leaving England, had begun to read the mystics, and
on November 23, 1736, addressed a long letter to his brother Samuel,
showing that, though he had been in danger of embracing their
bewildering heresies, he had now abandoned them. He writes:—
“I think the rock on which I had the nearest made shipwreck of
the faith was the writings of the mystics: under which term I
comprehend all, and only those, who slight any of the means of
grace. I have drawn up a short scheme of their doctrines, and
beg your thoughts upon it, as soon as you can conveniently.
Give me them as particularly, fully, and strongly as your time
will permit. They may be of consequence, not only to all this
province, but to nations of Christians yet unborn.
“‘All means are not necessary for all men: therefore each
person must use such means, and such only, as he finds
necessary for him. When the end is attained the means cease.’
“‘Men utterly divested of free will, of self-love, and
self-activity, are entered into the passive state, and enjoy
such a contemplation as is not only above faith, but above
sight—such as is entirely free from images, thoughts, and
discourse, and never interrupted by sins of infirmity, or
voluntary distractions. They have absolutely renounced their
reason and understanding; else they could not be guided by a
Divine light. They seek no clear or particular knowledge of
anything, but only an obscure, general knowledge, which is far
better.’
“‘Having thus attained the end, the means must cease. Hope is
swallowed up in love. Sight, or something more than sight,
takes the place of faith. All particular virtues they possess
in the essence, and therefore need not the distinct exercise
of them. They work likewise all good works essentially, not
accidentally, and use all outward means, only as they are moved
thereto.’
“‘Public prayer, or any forms, they need not; for they pray
without ceasing. Sensible devotion in any prayer they despise;
it being a great hindrance to perfection. The Scripture
they need not read; for it is only His letter, with whom
they converse face to face. Neither do they need the Lord’s
supper; for they never cease to _remember_ Christ in the most
acceptable manner.’”
Such was the mystified balderdash which Wesley had been in danger of
adopting. He concludes his letter thus:—
“May God deliver you and yours from all error, and all
unholiness! My prayers will never, I trust, be wanting for you.
I am, dear brother, my sister’s and your
“Most affectionate brother,
“JOHN WESLEY.”[178]
At the end of the year 1736, Wesley and Delamotte set out, on foot,
to Cowpen, missed their way, walked through a cypress swamp, with the
water breast high, and slept on the ground in their wet clothes, which
during the night were frozen, and in the morning were white as snow.
They then started for Frederica, fell short of provisions, used bear’s
flesh, and proved it to be wholesome. Arriving on January 5, 1737, they
found the people, as they expected, cold and heartless. Wesley’s life
was repeatedly threatened; and, after spending twenty more days in this
unhappy place, he departed from Frederica for ever. In his passage to
Savannah he read a volume containing the works of Nicholas Machiavel,
and formed the deliberate opinion, “that if all the other doctrines of
devils, which have been committed to writing, were collected together
in one volume, it would fall short of this; and that should a prince
form himself by this book, so calmly recommending hypocrisy, treachery,
lying, robbery, oppression, adultery, whoredom, and murder of all
kinds, Domitian or Nero would be an angel of light compared to that
man.”
Wesley had now been fifty-two weeks in America, twenty-four of which
he had spent at Savannah, and the rest at Frederica and at other
places between the two. He remained forty-six weeks longer. How was he
occupied? And what were his troubles?
Delamotte was teaching between thirty and forty children at Savannah
to read, write, and cast accounts, and Wesley catechized them every
Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Every sabbath he had three public
services, at five in the morning, twelve at mid-day, and three in the
afternoon; and then at night as many of his parishioners as desired it
met at his house, with whom he spent an hour in prayer, singing, and
mutual exhortation. A similar meeting was held in the same place every
Wednesday night, and selecter ones on all the other evenings of the
week.
There being no immediate prospect of commencing a mission among the
heathen, Wesley, Delamotte, and Ingham consulted together, and agreed
that the last mentioned should return to England; and accordingly,
after spending exactly fifty-five weeks in Georgia, he embarked for
home, having literally done next to nothing either for the colonists or
the Indians, with the exception of composing, in Dr. Byrom’s shorthand,
a catalogue of half the words in the Indian language,[179] in a house
built for him near the Indian town, a few miles from Savannah. The
chief object of sending Ingham to England was to obtain more help for
the colonists. In a letter dated February 16, 1737, and addressed to a
friend in Lincoln College, Oxford, Wesley writes:—
“There is great need that God should put it into the hearts of
some, to come over to us, and labour with us in His harvest.
But I should not desire any to come unless on the same views
and conditions with us; without any temporal wages, other than
food and raiment, the plain conveniences of life. For one or
more, in whom was this mind, there would be full employment in
the province: either in assisting Mr. Delamotte or me, while we
were present here; or in supplying our places when abroad; or
in visiting the poor people in the smaller settlements as well
as at Frederica, all of whom are as sheep without a shepherd.
“By these labours of love might any that desired it be trained
up for the harder task of preaching the gospel to the heathen.
The difficulties he must then encounter God only knows;
probably martyrdom would conclude them. But those we have
hitherto met with have been small. Persecution, you know, is
the portion of every follower of Christ, wherever his lot is
cast; but it has hitherto extended no farther than words with
regard to us, unless in one or two inconsiderable instances.
Still, every man that would come hither ought to be willing and
ready to embrace the severer kinds of it.”[180]
Meanwhile, Oglethorpe’s troubles had begun. From a letter which Wesley
wrote to him, on February 24, 1737, we learn that Sir Robert Walpole
had turned against the general, and parliament had resolved to make
a strict scrutiny into Georgian affairs. The trustees had charged
Oglethorpe with misapplying moneys, and with abusing his entrusted
power. Wesley adds: “Perhaps in some things you have shown you are but
a man: perhaps I myself may have a little to complain of: but oh what
a train of benefits have I received to lay in the balance against it!
I bless God that ever you was born. I acknowledge His exceeding mercy
in casting me into your hands. I own your generous kindness all the
time we were at sea. I am indebted to you for a thousand favours here.
Though all men should revile you, yet will not I.”[181]
Sinister rumours were circulated in reference to Wesley, as well as
Oglethorpe. Hence the following hitherto unpublished letter, endorsed
by Wesley thus:—“The Trustees’ Letter, June 17, 1737, fully acquitting
me:”—
“_Trustees of Georgia to the Rev. J. Wesley._
“GEORGIA OFFICE, _June 15, 1737_.
“SIR,—The Rev. Mr. Burton has this day laid before the trustees
a letter from you to them, dated Savannah, March 4, 1737,
wherein you express a concern that they should receive an
accusation of your embezzling any part of their goods, and
likewise a desire to know the name of your accuser.
“The trustees have ordered me to assure you, that they are very
much surprised at any apprehensions you have of such accusation
being brought before them. No complaint of any kind has been
laid before them relating to you. They have never as a board,
nor has any of them privately, heard of one; nor have they the
least suspicion of any ground for one. They would not (if they
had received any) form a judgment of you without acquainting
you with the accusation, and the name of the accuser. At
the same time, they believe you will think it reasonable to
let them know who has informed you that any such accusation
has been brought before them, and that, for the future, you
will not believe nor listen to any private informations or
insinuations, that must make you uneasy, and may lead you to
distrust the justice of the trustees, and the regard they have
for you.
“The trustees are very sensible of the great importance of
the work you have engaged in; and they hope God will prosper
the undertaking, and support you in it; for they have much at
heart, not only the success of the colony in general, but the
progress of piety among the people, as well as the conversion
of the Indians. They are very glad to find that Mr. Causton
has seconded your endeavours to suppress vice and immorality,
and that a reformation gains ground, as you observe it does.
The trustees will take into consideration your application in
favour of Robert Haws, and have a regard to it.
“I am, sir, your most obedient servant,
“BENJAMIN MARTIN, _Secretary_.”
The following letter, also now first published, refers to the same
subject, besides containing other information which we hope will be
found not devoid of interest. It was addressed to “The Rev. Mr. John
Wesley, at Savannah, in Georgia:”—
“OSSET, _October 19, 1737_.
“DEAR BROTHER,—By your silence one would suspect that you
were offended at my last letter. Am I your enemy because I
tell you the truth? But perhaps I was too severe. Forgive me
then. However, I am sure that, by soaring too high in your own
imaginations, you have had a great downfall in your spiritual
progress. Be lowly, therefore, in your own eyes. Humble
yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up. I do assure
you it is out of pure love, and with concern, that I write. I
earnestly wish your soul’s welfare. O pray for mine also. The
Lord preserve you!
“Could you, think you, live upon the income of your fellowship?
If you can, do. The trustees are indeed very willing to support
you, and they take it ill that anybody should say you have been
too expensive. But the Bishop of London (as I have heard),
and some others, have been offended at your expenses. And not
indeed altogether without reason, because you declared at your
leaving England that you should want scarcely anything. I just
give you these hints. Pray for direction, and then act as you
judge best.
“Charles is so reserved: I know little about him: he neither
writes to me, nor comes to see me: what he intends is best
known to himself. Mr. Hutton’s family go on exceedingly well.
Your friend Mr. Morgan (I hear) either has, or is about
publishing a book, to prove that every one baptized with water
is regenerate. All friends at Oxford go on well. Mr. Kinchin,
Mr. Hutchins, Mr. Washington, Bell, Turney, Hervey, Watson,
are all zealous. Mr. Atkinson labours under severe trials in
Westmoreland; but is steady, and sincere, and an excellent
Christian. Dick Smith is weak, but not utterly gone. Mr.
Robson, and Grieves, are but indifferent: the latter is married
to a widow, and teaching school at Northampton. Mr. Thompson,
of Queen’s, has declared his resolution of following Christ.
“Remember me to Mr. Wallis, Mark Hind, and the Davison family,
Mrs. Gilbert Mears, Mr. Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. Burnside, Mr.
and Mrs. Williamson.
“Yours in Christ,
“BENJAMIN INGHAM.”
Wesley’s ideas of religion, at this period, may be gathered from the
following extracts from a letter, dated “Savannah, March 28, 1737,” and
addressed to “William Wogan, Esq., in Spring Gardens, London.”[182]
“I entirely agree with you, that religion is love, and peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost; that, as it is the happiest, so
it is the cheerfulest thing in the world; that it is utterly
inconsistent with moroseness, sourness, severity, and indeed
with whatever is not according to the softness, sweetness, and
gentleness of Christ Jesus. I believe it is equally contrary
to all preciseness, stiffness, affectation, and unnecessary
singularity. I allow, too, that prudence, as well as zeal, is
of the utmost importance in the Christian life. But I do not
yet see any possible case wherein trifling conversation can be
an instance of it. In the following scriptures I take all such
to be flatly forbidden: Matt. xii. 36; Eph. v. 4, and iv. 29;
Col. iv. 6.
“That I shall be laughed at for this, I know; so was my Master.
I am not for a stern, austere manner of conversing. No: let all
the cheerfulness of faith be there, all the joyfulness of hope,
all the amiable sweetness—the winning easiness of love. If we
must have art, ‘_Hic mihi erunt artes_.’”
Again, in another letter, written to Mrs. Chapman a day later, he says:—
“You seem to apprehend that I believe religion to be
inconsistent with cheerfulness, and with a social friendly
temper. So far from it, that I am convinced, as true religion
cannot be without cheerfulness, so steady cheerfulness cannot
be without true religion. I am equally convinced that religion
has nothing sour, austere, unsociable, unfriendly in it; but
on the contrary, implies the most winning sweetness, the most
amiable softness and gentleness. Are you for having as much
cheerfulness as you can? So am I. Do you endeavour to keep
alive your taste for all the truly innocent pleasures of life?
So do I. Do you refuse no pleasure but what is a hindrance to
some greater good, or has a tendency to some evil? It is my
very rule. In particular, I pursue this rule in eating, which
I seldom do without much pleasure. I know it is the will of
God, that I should enjoy every pleasure that leads to my taking
pleasure in Him, and in such a measure as most leads to it. We
are to do nothing but what, directly or indirectly, leads to
our holiness; and to do every such thing with this design, and
in such a measure as may most promote it.