If John Wesley himself, the little, long-nosed, long-chinned,
peremptory man who, on March 9, 1791, was carried to his
grave by six poor men, “leaving behind him nothing but a good
library of books, a well-worn clergyman’s gown, a much-abused
reputation, and--the Methodist Church, could return to this
world just now, when so much admiring ink is being poured upon
his head, he would probably be the most astonished man on the
planet.” For if Wesley has achieved fame, he never intended it.
Seeley says that England conquered and peopled half the world
in a fit of absence of mind. And if Wesley built up one of the
greatest of modern churches, and supplied a new starting-point
to modern religious history, it was with an entire absence of
conscious intention. (Text.)--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley
and His Century.”
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