Scriptures." While Nelson was in this state, he seldom slept four hours in the night,-sometimes he started from his sleep as if he were falling into a horrible pit; sometimes dreamed that he was fighting with Satan, and awoke exhausted and bathed in sweat from the imaginary conflict.

Thus he continued, till Wesley preached for the first time in Moorfields. "Oh!" says he, "that was a blessed morning for my soul! As soon as he got upon the stand, he stroked back his hair and turned his face towards where I stood, and I thought he fixed his eyes on me. His countenance struck such an awful dread upon me before I heard him speak, that it made my heart beat like the pendulum of a clock; and when he did speak, I thought his whole discourse was aimed at me." Nelson might well think thus, for it was a peculiar characteristic of Wesley in his discourses, that in winding up his sermons,-in pointing his exhortations and driving them home, he spoke as if he were addressing himself to an individual, so that every one to whom the condition which he described was applicable, felt as if he were singled out; and the preacher's words were then like the eyes of a portrait, which seem to look at every beholder. Who," said the preacher, "Who art thou, that now seest and feelest both thine inward and outward ungodliness? Thou art the man! I want thee for my Lord, I challenge thee for a child of God by faith. The Lord hath need of thee. Thou who feelest thou art just fit for hell, art just fit to advance his glory,-the glory of his free grace, justifying the ungodly and him that worketh not. O come quickly! Believe in the Lord Jesus: and thou, even thou, art reconciled to God." And again,-"Thou ungodly one, who hearest or readest these words, thou vile, helpless, miserable sinner, I charge thee before God, the Judge of all, go straight unto him, with all thy ungodliness! Take heed thou destroy not thine own soul by pleading thy righteousness more or less. Go as altogether ungodly, guilty, lost, destroyed, deserving, and dropping into hell; and thou shalt then find favour in His sight, and know that He justifieth the ungodly. As such thou shalt be brought unto the blood of sprinkling, as an undone, helpless, damned sinner. Thus look unto Jesus! There is the lamb of God, who taketh away thy sins! Plead thou no works, no righteousness of thine own! No humility, no contrition, sincerity! In no wise! That were in very deed to deny the Lord that bought thee. No. Plead thou singly, the blood of the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud, stubborn, sinful soul." This was the emphatic manner in which Wesley used to address his hearers, knowing as he did, that there would always be some among them to whom it would be precisely adapted. By such an address the course of John Nelson's after life was determined ;-the string vibrated now which Whitefield had failed to touch; and when the sermon was ended, he said within himself, "This man can tell the secrets of my heart. He hath not left me there, for he hath showed the remedy, even the blood of Jesus." He did not, however, at once make his case known to the preacher, and solicit his particular attention: during all his inward conflicts, there was in his outward actions a coolness and steadiness of conduct, which is the proper virtue of an Englishman. His acquaintances, however, were

apprehensive that he was going too far in religion, and would thas bring poverty and distress upon his family by becoming unfit for business, and they wished he had never heard Mr. Wesley, for they were afraid it would be his ruin. His reply was not likely to remove these apprel.ensions. "I told them," says he, “I had reason to bless God that ever he was born, for by hearing him I was made sensible that my business in this world is to get well out of it; and as for my trade, health, wisdom, and all things in this world, they are no blessings to me any further than as so many instruments to help me, by the grace of God, to work out my salvation." Upon this, his friends, with a feeling of indignation arising from the warmth of their good will, replied, "they were very sorry for him, and should be glad to knock Mr. Wesley's brains out, for he would be the ruin of many families, if he were allowed to live and go on as he did." Poor Nelson at this time narrowly escaped being turned out of doors by the persons with whom he lodged, lest some mischief, they said, should come upon them with so much praying and fuss as he made about religion. But they were good simple people; and a doubt came upon them, that if John should be right and they wrong, it would be a sad thing to turn him out; and John had soon the satisfaction of taking them to hear Mr. Wesley. He risked his employment too by refusing to work at the Exchequer on a Sunday when his master's foreman told him that the king's business required haste, and that it was common to work on the Sunday for His Majesty when any thing was upon the finish. But John stoutly averred, "that he would not work upon the Sabbath for any man in England, except it were to quench fire, or something that required the same immediate help."" Religion," said the foreman," has made you a rebel against the King."-" No, sir," he replied, "it has made me a better subject than ever I was. The greatest enemies the King has, are the Sabbath-breakers, swearers, drunkards and whoremongers, for these pull down God's judgments both upon King and country." He was told that he should lose his employment if he would not obey his orders; his answer was, "he would rather want for bread than wilfully offend God." The foreman swore that he would be as mad as Whitefield if he went on. "What hast thou done," said he, "that thou needest make so much ado about salvation? I always took thee to be as honest a man as any I have in the work, and could have trusted thee with five hundred pounds." might," answered Nelson," and not have lost one penny by me.' "I have a worse opinion of thee now," said the foreman. "Master," he replied, "I have the odds of you; for I have a much worse opinion of myself than you can have." But the end was that the work was not pursued on the Sunday, and that John Nelson rose in the good opinion of his employer for having shown a sense of his duty as a Christian.

"So you

He now fasted the whole of every Friday, giving away to the poor the food which he would otherwise have eaten. He spent his leisure hours in prayer, and in reading the Bible; and his desire for the salvation of souls was such, that he actually hired one of his fellow workmen to go and hear Mr. Wesley preach. The experiment answered, for the workman afterwards told him it was the best thing

son.

both for him and his wife that ever man had done for them. When he dreamed of the devil now, it was no longer a dream of horrors; he was a match for him, and seeing him let loose among the people in the shape of a red bull, he took him by the horns and twisted him upon his back, and set his right foot upon his neck. A letter came from his wife in the country, with the tidings of the death of one darling child, and the desperate illness of another; he received it with a composure which made the by-standers accuse him of hardness of heart but he was in a high state of exaltation : "his soul," he says, "seemed to breathe its life in God, as naturally as his body breathed life in the common air." This was at the time when the Methodists separated from the Moravians first, and immediately afterwards from the Calvinists. Both Moravians and Calvinists fell upon John NelThe former assured him that Mr. Wesley, poor dear man, was wandering in the dark, a blind leader of the blind; that indeed he was only a John the Baptist, to go before and prepare the way of the brethren; the brethren in Fetter-lane were the men who were to lead people into true stillness; most of his followers had forsaken him, and were become happy sinners,—and he must do the same, otherwise Mr. Wesley would still keep him under the law, and bring him into bondage. On the other hand, the Calvinists affirmed that Mr. Wesley denied the faith of the Gospel, which was predestination and election. He happened to reprove one of these comfortable believers for swearing, and the man replied that he was predestinated to it, and did not trouble himself about it at all, for if he were one of the elect he should be saved, but if he were not, all he could do would not alter God's decree. Nelson blessed God that he had not heard such things in the time of his distress, for he thought they would in that case have been the destruction of his body and soul. He was now able to make his part good against such reasoners; and when they told him that their eyes were opened, that they saw now into the electing love of God, and that, do what they would, they could not finally fall, he said to them, "You have gone out of the highway of holiness, and have got into the devil's penfold. You are not seeking to perfect holiness in the fear of God, but are resting in opinions that give you liberty to live after the flesh. Satan," he said, "had preached that doctrine to him before they did, and God had armed him both against him and them." Soon afterwards he had, for the first time, an opportunity of speaking to Mr. Wesley. They walked together some way; and he says it was a blessed conference to him. When they parted, Wesley took him by the hand, and looking him in the face, bade him take care that he did not quench the spirit.

John

Dreams and impressions, according to his own account, rather than the desire of rejoining his family, induced him now to return to Birstall, his native place, where they resided, and where indeed he had always carefully provided for them, whether he was at home or abroad. Some little discomfort at first attended his return. was perfectly satisfied that he had received the assurance, and knew his sins were forgiven. His wife and mother entreated him not to say this to any one, for no one would believe him. But he said he should not be ashamed to tell what God had done for his soul, if he

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could speak loud enough for all the men in the world to hear him at once. His mother said to him, “Your head is turned ;" and he replied, "Yes, and my heart too, I thank the Lord." The wife besought him that he would either leave off abusing his neighbours, or go back to London; but he declared that it was his determination to reprove any who sinned in his presence; she began to weep, and said he did not love her so well as he used to do, and that her happiness was over, if he believed her to be a child of the devil, and himself a child of God. But Nelson told her he prayed and believed God would make her a blessed companion for him in the way of heaven; and she, who was a good wife, and knew that she had a good husband, soon fell in with his wishes, listened to his teaching, and became as zealous in the cause as himself.

He now began to exhort his neighbours as well as to reprove them. and by defending his doctrines when they were disputed, was led unawares to quote texts of Scripture, expound, and enforce them, in a manner which at length differed from preaching only in the name. This he did in his own house at first, where he had the good fortune to convert most of his relations; and when his auditors became so numerous that the house could not hold them, he then stood at the door and harangued there. Ingham was settled in this neighbourhood with a Moravian society, and he, at Peter Boehler's desire, gave John Nelson leave to exhort them; this permission was withdrawn, when the ill temper which the division in London had excited, extended itself here also, and Ingham would then have silenced him, but John said he had not begun by the order of man, and would not leave off by it. Hitherto Nelson had not ventured upon preaching, for preaching it was now become, without strong inward conflicts of reluctance, arising from the natural sobriety of his character, and perhaps from a diffidence of himself; he says he would rather have been hanged on a tree than go to preach; and once when a great congregation was gathered together begging him to preach, he acted the part of Jonah, and fled into the fields. But opposition stimulated him now; he "desired to die rather than live to see the children devoured by these boars out of the German wood." "God," he says, " opened his word more and more ;" in other words, zeal and indignation made him eloquent. He now wrote to Mr. Wesley, telling him what he was doing, and requesting him, “as his father in the Gospel, to write and give him some instructions how to proceed in the work which God had begun by such an unpolished tool as himself." Wesley replied, that he would see him in the ensuing* week. He came accordingly to Birstall, and found there a preacher and a

Nelson says, in his Journal, "Ile sate down by my fireside, in the very posture I had dreamed about four months before, and spoke the same words I dreamed he spoke." There is no reason either to credit this to the letter, or to discredit the general veracity of this remarkable man, be cause he is fond of relating his dreams. The universal attention which has been paid to dreams in all ages, proves that the superstition is natural; and I have heard too many well-attested facts, (facts to which belief could not be refused upon any known laws of evidence,) not to believe that impressions are sometimes made in this manner, and forewarnings communicated which cannot be explained by material philosophy, or mere metaphysics. I do not mean to apply this to such stories as are found in John Nelson's Journal, or in books of a similar kind; most of them are the effects of a distempered imagination. But the particular instance which has occasioned this note, may be explained by a state of mind which many persons will recognise in their own experience, a state when we seem to feel that the same thing which is then happening to us has happened to as formerly, though there be no remembrance of it other than this dim recognition.

large congregation raised up without his interference. Had he been still doubtful whether the admission of lay preachers should make a part of his plan, this must have decided him : "Therefore," in the words of his official biographers," he now fully acquiesced in the order of God, and rejoiced that the thoughts of God were not as his confused thoughts."

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This was Wesley's first expedition to the north of England. He proceeded to Newcastle, being induced to try that scene of action because of the success which he had found among the colliers in Kingswood. Upon entering the town at evening and on foot, the profligacy of the populace surprised as well as shocked him. much drunkenness," he says, "cursing and swearing, (even from the mouths of little children,) do I never remember to have seen and heard before, in so small a compass of time.-Surely this place is ripe for Him who came to call sinners to repentance.' At seven on a Sunday morning he walked with his companion to Sandgate, the poorest and most contemptible part of the town, and there he began to sing the hundredth psalm. This soon brought a crowd about him, which continued to increase till he had done preaching. When he had finished, the people still stood staring at him with the most profound astonishment. Upon which he said, "If you desire to know who I am, my name is John Wesley. At five in the evening, with God's help, I design to preach here again." At that hour the hill upon which he intended to preach was covered from top to bottom. "I never," he says, saw so large a number of people together, either in Moorfields or at Kennington Common. I knew it was not possible for the one half to hear, although my voice was then strong and clear, and I stood so as to have them all in view as they were ranged on the side of the bill. The word of God which I set before them was, I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely. After preaching, the poor people were ready to tread me under foot, out of pure love and kindness." Wesley could not then remain with them, but his brother soon came and organized them, and in a few months he returned, and began to build a room for what he called the wild, staring, loving society. "I could not but observe," he says, "the different manner wherein God is pleased to work in different places. The grace of God flows here with a wider stream than it did at first, either at Bristol or Kingswood: but it does not sink so deep as it did there. Few are thoroughly convinced of sin, and scarce any can witness that the Lamb of God has taken away their sins." But the usual symptoms were ere long produced.One woman had her sight and strength taken away at once, and at the same time, she said, the love of God so overflowed her soul that she could neither speak nor move. A man also lost his sight for a time, and subjects began to cry out, and sink down in the meeting. "And I could not but observe," says Wesley, "that here the very best people, so called, were as deeply convinced as open sinners. Several of these were now constrained to roar aloud for the disquietness of their hearts, and these generally not young, (as in most other places,) but either middle aged, or well stricken in years. I never saw a work of God in any other place, so evenly and gradually carried on. It continually rises step by step. Not so much