Whitefield had to sail for Georgia, and he summoned Wesley to
leave London and come to Bristol to take up the strange work
begun there. In the little society in Fetter Lane that call was
heard with dread. Some dim sense of great issues hanging upon
the answer to it disquieted the minds of the little company.
The Bible was consulted by lot, and repeatedly, in search of a
text which might be accepted as a decision. But only the most
alarming passages emerged. “Get thee up into this mountain
and die on the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered
to thy people,” ran one. When one chance-selected text proved
disquieting in this fashion the lot was cast again and yet
again, but always with the same result. There was a quaint
mixture of superstition and simplicity in the Bibliomancy of the
early Methodists. If the text which presented itself did not
please, it was rejected, and the sacred pages were interrogated
by chance afresh, in the hope of more welcome results.--W.
H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”
(244)