A very old school.--The first Methodist
Chapel.--Well done, Bristol!--Empty purses.--How
they were filled.--The penny-a-week rule.
YOU remember the school at Kingswood, that the colliers collected the
money for and started? Although it is one hundred and fifty years ago
since it was opened, there has been a school at Kingswood ever since,
and it is the very oldest thing we have in connection with Methodism.
If you will listen at chapel some time--in October I think it generally
is--you will hear the minister say: "Collections will be taken to-day,
morning and evening, on behalf of the Kingswood Schools." When you hear
this will you just think, that the money you give is for the same school
that was started by those good-hearted colliers near Bristol, more than
one hundred and fifty years ago.
Now I must tell you of the very first Methodist Chapel that was ever
built; for this, too, we have to thank the Bristol people. Having heard
about Jesus Christ themselves, they were eager for their friends and
neighbours to hear about Him too. They worked very hard, and were so
much in earnest inviting people to come to the services, that at last
the room where they held their meeting got far too small for all the
people who wanted to come. It was only a tumble-down sort of place, and
they were afraid the floor might give way or the roof fall in, and
somebody be hurt.
At last they secured a piece of ground in what was called the Horse Fair
in Bristol, and one bright May morning, in 1739, the first stone of the
FIRST METHODIST CHAPEL
was laid, amidst great shouting of praise and thanksgiving. I have
called it a Chapel, but the Methodists called it a "Preaching House."
You may think what a great deal of money it took to carry on all the
work that the Methodists were doing; sometimes their purses were very
empty, and they wondered however they should get them filled again. But
it was God's work they were doing, and of course the money always came.
Like most Methodist Chapels nowadays, the money to pay for the Bristol
Preaching House was not got all at once; but a plan was adopted which, I
think, was a very good one. Every Methodist in Bristol promised to pay
a penny a week until all the money was raised; and as there were some
hundreds of Methodists, the debt was soon paid off. Some of the people,
however, were too poor to pay even this small amount, so it was arranged
that the richer men should each call upon eleven poorer ones every week,
and collect their pennies, and when they could not give them, the rich
man was to make it up. This was the beginning of the weekly class money
which your fathers and mothers, if they are Methodists, pay in their
class-meetings to-day.
When Mr. Wesley told the society in Fetter Lane, London, of the good
plan the Bristol people had made, they adopted it too, and always after
that wherever the Methodists commenced a society, the penny-a-week rule
was followed.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]