A visit to Ireland.--The sack that did not contain
potatoes.--The bogie man.--What the sack did
contain.--The prayer-meeting in the barn.--Mr.
Charles Wesley gets married.--And so does Mr.
John.--Two niggers who became missionaries.
IN 1749 Mr. Wesley paid a visit to Ireland, where already he had many
followers. His brother Charles had visited there two years before, and
was a great favourite, for the Irish people love music, and would always
go to hear his hymns.
In many places in Ireland the Methodists were treated quite as badly as
they were in our own country; but the same angel of the Lord that
protected them in England followed them across the Irish sea.
There is a funny story told of how they were once saved from a band of
rough men. The Roman Catholics persecuted them so much at Wexford that
they were obliged to hold their meeting secretly in a barn. Once, one of
their persecutors got to know the night they were having a meeting, and
told his companions he would hide himself in the barn before the service
began, and then when it commenced he would open the door to them. They
thought this was a splendid idea. So the man went to the barn, and there
found an old sack or bag, big enough for him to get into. Into this he
crept, and by and by the people began to come, and the service
commenced. First, they sang a hymn; and somehow the man in the bag
enjoyed it so much, he quite forgot what he had come into the barn for.
He listened until the hymn was finished, and then he listened to the
prayer that followed, and after that he could not listen any more. He
couldn't get out of the bag, and he couldn't do anything but groan and
cry. God, through the hymn and the prayer, had touched his heart, and he
felt himself to be the greatest sinner in Ireland.
So he groaned and groaned, and at last some of the congregation heard
him. They looked towards the place where the mysterious sound came from,
but could see nothing except what looked like a sack of potatoes. Still
the groaning went on, and some of the people got frightened, and were
quite sure there was a bogie in the barn. At last one or two ventured to
go nearer to the sack, then some one peeped in, and the poor trembling
Irishman was discovered. He confessed to his purpose in hiding himself,
told them God had stopped him in his evil plan, and begged them to pray
for him. So the service was turned into a prayer-meeting, the man was
converted, and became one of the best Methodists in Wexford.
Some of my readers will be wondering if Mr. John or Mr. Charles Wesley
were ever married, and if they had any boys and girls of their own. Just
before Mr. Wesley went to Ireland in 1749, he married his brother
Charles to the daughter of a Welsh gentleman, and Mr. Wesley, himself,
was married two years later to a lady who was a widow. You will be sorry
to hear that this lady was not at all nice; she treated her husband most
unkindly, and made him very unhappy. Though Mr. Wesley was so fond of
children, he never had any of his own. Mr. Charles had eight, but only
three lived to grow up. His wife was a good, kind lady, and they were
very happy. He did not travel about so much after he was married, but
spent a great deal of his time writing his beautiful hymns.
These two brothers always remained the best of friends. In one of his
letters, Charles wrote to John: "I wish we could be oftener together; it
might be better for us both. Let us be useful in our lives, and at our
death not divided."
Before I close this chapter I want to tell you of the first two black
men who were converted through the preaching of a Methodist.
Living at Wandsworth, a little place near London where Mr. Wesley had
gone to preach, was a gentleman named Nathaniel Gilbert. He had come
from the West Indies, where he employed a great many negroes. Two of
these negroes he had brought over to England with him, and when Mr.
Wesley paid a visit to Mr. Gilbert, and preached in his house, these two
black men were converted. When they returned to the West Indies, they,
along with Mr. Gilbert, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the dark
people in those far-away islands.
"Shall we, whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high,
Shall we to men benighted
The lamp of life deny?
Salvation, oh, salvation,
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till earth's remotest nation
Has learnt Messiah's name."
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