Methodist rules.--Pulpits closed against Mr.
Wesley.--A visit to Germany.--A walk in
Holland.--Christian David, the German
carpenter.--The Fellow of Lincoln College takes
lessons in a cottage.
I DARE say many of my readers go to Wesleyan Chapels, and understand
some of the Methodist rules. Most of these rules were made by the two
Mr. Wesleys and their friends more than one hundred and fifty years ago,
and they have been kept by their followers ever since. I want to tell
you about a few of them.
The people who attended the Methodist meetings were divided into little
bands or companies, no band to have fewer than five persons in it, and
none more than ten. They were to meet every week, and each one in turn
was to tell the rest what troubles and temptations they had had, and how
God, through Jesus Christ, had helped them since the last meeting.
Every Wednesday evening, at eight o'clock, all the bands joined together
in one large meeting, which began and ended with hymns and prayer.
There were many other rules, some of which I will tell you later on,
others you can read about when you are older.
All this time you must remember that Mr. Wesley was a church clergyman.
He loved the Church of England very dearly, though there were a great
many things in it with which he did not agree.
Wherever he preached he told the people just what he believed, and as
very few clergymen thought as he did, they did not like him speaking his
opinions so freely. At last, first one and then another said he should
never preach in their churches again. Yet the message Mr. Wesley gave to
the people, was the very same message that Christ spoke long before on
the shores of Galilee.
Mr. Wesley still longed to understand his Bible better, and to learn
more of Jesus Christ, so he determined to go and visit the Moravians at
a place called Herrnhuth in Germany, and see if he could get some help
from them. So one June day, he said good-bye to his mother, and with
eight of his friends set off. One of these friends was an old member of
the Holy Club at Oxford. On their way to Herrnhuth, they had to pass
through Holland. This is what Mr. Wesley says about a walk they had in
that country:
I never saw such a beautiful road. Walnut trees grow in rows on each
side, so that it is like walking in a gentleman's garden. We were
surprised to find that in this country the people at the inns will not
always take in travellers who ask for food and bed. They refused to
receive us at several inns. At one of the towns we were asked to go and
see their church, and when we went in we took off our hats in reverence,
as we do in England, but the people were not pleased, they said: "You
must not do so, it is not the custom in this country."
After a long, long journey through Germany, the little party at last
reached Herrnhuth.
Mr. Wesley had only been a few days there, when he wrote to his brother
Samuel: "God has given me my wish, I am with those who follow Christ in
all things, and who walk as He walked."
I must just tell you about one of these Moravians, because he helped Mr.
Wesley more than any of the others. His name was Christian David. He was
only an ignorant working-man, and when not preaching was always to be
found working at his carpenter's bench. But David was Christian in life
as well as in name; he "walked with God," and whether he preached and
prayed, or worked with chisel and plane, he did all "in the name of the
Lord Jesus." He was never tired of telling people about the Saviour he
loved, and trying to get them to love Him too. He was a man who often
made mistakes, but as some one has said, "the man who never makes
mistakes never makes anything;" and Christian David was always ready to
own his faults when they were pointed out to him.
You remember to what a high position Mr. Wesley had risen at Oxford, and
how clever he was? Yet Christian David knew more than he did about Jesus
Christ and His love; and the Fellow of Lincoln College was not too proud
to go and sit in a cottage and be taught by this humble carpenter, who
so closely followed the Holy Carpenter of Nazareth.
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