ple afflicted for me, may, on that account, deliver me from the power of the devil. Oh, what a hell have I upon earth! I would not charge God foolishly, for he has been very merciful to me; but I brought all this evil on myself by sin, and by not making a right use of his mercy. Pray continually for me; for the prayer of faith will shut and open heaven. It may be a means of my deliverance, which will be one of the greatest miracles of mercy ever known."

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If Mr. Wesley received this letter in time, it cannot be doubted but that he would have complied with the request. The unhappy writer was in Swift's Hospital, and, perhaps, in consequence of not receiving an answer to her letter, she got her mother to address a similar one to the preacher at Cork, and he appointed two Tuesdays to be observed, as she had requested, both in that city and at Limerick. There may be ground for reasonable suspicion that Methodism had caused the disease; the Cork preacher was apprized, by a brother at Dublin, of the manner in which it operated the cure. have to inform you of the mercy of God to Miss T. She was brought from Swift's Hospital on Sunday evening, and on Tuesday night, about ten o'clock, she was in the utmost distress. She thought she saw Christ and Satan fighting for her; and that she heard Christ say, I will have her!' In a moment hope sprung up in her heart; the promises of God flowed in upon her; she cried out, I am taken from hell to heaven! She now declares she could not tell whether she was in the body or out of it. She is much tempted, but in her right mind, enjoying a sense of the mercy of God. She remembers all that is past, and knows it was a punishment for her sins." nearly twenty years elapsed before Wesley published these letters, it may be inferred that the cure was permanent.

As

"Are there any drunkards here ?" said a preacher one day in his sermons, applying his discourse in that manner which the Methodists have found so effectual. A poor Irishman looked up, and replied, “Yes, I am one!" And the impression which he then received, enabled him to throw off his evil habits, and become from that day forward, a reclaimed man. The Methodists at Wexford met in a long barn, and used to fasten the door, because they were annoyed by a Catholic mob. Being thus excluded from the meeting, the mob became curious to know what was done there; and taking counsel together, they agreed that a fellow should get in and secrete himself before the congregation assembled, so that he might see all that was going on, and, at a proper time, let in his companions. The adventurer could find no better means of concealment than by getting into a sack which he found there, and lying down in a situation near the entrance. The people collected, secured the door as usual, and, as usual, began their service by singing. The mob collected also, and, growing impatient, called repeatedly upon their friend Patrick to open the door; but Pat happened to have a taste for music, and he liked the singing so well, that he thought, as he afterwards said, it would be a thousand pities to disturb it. And when the hymn was done, and the itinerant began to pray, in spite of all the vociferation of his comrades, he thought that, as he had been so well pleased with the singing, he would see how he liked the prayer; but, when the prayer proceeded, "the power of God," says the relater, "did so confound him, that he

roared out with might and main; and not having power to get out of the sack, lay bawling and screaming, to the astonishment and dismay of the congregation, who probably supposed that Satan himself was in the barn. Somebody, at last, ventured to see what was in the sack; and helping him out, brought him up, confessing his sins, and crying for mercy. This is the most comical case of instantaneous conversion that ever was recorded, and yet the man is said to have been thoroughly converted.

A memorable instance of the good effects produced by Methodism was shown, in a case of shipwreck upon the Isle of Cale, off the coast of the county of Down. There were several Methodist societies in that neighbourhood, and some of the members went wrecking with the rest of the people, and others bought, or received presents of the plundered goods. As soon as John Prickard, who was at that time travelling in the Lisburn circuit, heard of this, he hastened to inquire into it, and found that all the societies, except one, had, more or less," been partakers of the accursed thing.' Upon this he preached repentance and restitution; and, with an almost broken heart, read out sixty-three members on the following Sunday, in Downpatrick; giving notice, that those who would make restitution should be restored, at a proper time, but that for those who would not, their names should be recorded in the general steward's book, with an account of their crime and obstinacy. This severity produced much of its desired effect, and removed the reproach which would otherwise have attached to the Methodists. Some persons,

who did not belong to the Society, but had merely attended as hearers, were so much affected by the exhortation and the example, that they desired to make restitution with them. The owners of the vessel empowered Prickard to allow salvage; but, with a proper degree of austerity, he refused to do this, because the people, in the first instance, had been guilty of a crime. This affair deservedly raised the character of the Methodists in those parts; and it was observed, by the gentry in the neighbourhood, that if the ministers of every other persuasion had acted as John Prickard did, most of the goods might have been saved.

"Although I had many an aching head and pained breast," says one of the itinerants, speaking of his campaigns in Ireland," yet it was delightful to see hundreds attending to my blundering preaching, with streaming eyes, and attention still as night." "The damp, dirty,*

**There is a letter of advice from Mr. Wesley to one of his Trish preachers, (written in 1769,) which gives a curious picture of the people for whom such advice could be needful.-" Dear brother," he says, "I shall now tell you the things which have been, more or less, upon my mind, ever since I was in the North of Ireland. If you forget them, you will be a sufferer, and so will the people; if you observe them, it will be good for both. Be steadily serious. There is no country upon earth where this is more necessary than in Ireland, as you are generally encompassed with those who, with a little encouragement, would laugh or trifle from morning till night. In every town visit all you can, from house to house; but on this, and every other occasion, avoid all familiarity with women: this is deadly poison, both to them and to you. You cannot be too wary in this respect. Be active, be diligent; avoid all laziness, sloth, indolence; fly from every degree, every appearance of it, else you will never be more than half a Christian. Be cleanly: in this let the Methodists take pattern by the Quakers. Avoid all nastiness, dirt, slovenliness, both in your person, clothes, house, and all about you. Do not stink above ground!

Whatever clothes you have, let them be whole: no rents, no tatters, no rags; these are a scandal to either man or woman, being another fruit of vile laziness. Mend your clothes, or else I shall never expect to see you mend your lives. Let none ever see a ragged Methodist. Clean yourselves of lice:

smoky cabins of Ulster," says another, were a good trial: but what makes a double amends for all these inconveniences, to any preacher who loves the word of God, is, that our people here are in general the most zealous, lively, affectionate Christians we have in the kingdom." Wesley himself, while he shuddered at the ferocious character of Irish history, loved the people; and said, he had seen as real courtesy in their cabins, as could be found at St. James's or the Louvre. He found them more liberal than the English Methodists, and he lived to see a larger society at Dublin than any in England, except that in the metropolis.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WESLEY IN MIDDLE AGE.

It is with the minds of men as with fermented liquors; they are long in ripening, in proportion to their strength. Both the Wesleys had much to work off, and the process, therefore, was of long continuance. In Charles it was perfected about middle life. His enthusiasm had spent itself, and his opinions were modified by time, as well as sobered by experience. In the forty-first year of his age, he was married by his brother, at Garth, in Brecknockshire, to Miss Sarah Gwynne, "It was a solemn day," says John, "such as became the dignity of a Christian marriage.' For a while he continued to itinerate, as he had been wont; but, after a few years, he became a settled man, and was contented to perform the duties and enjoy the comforts of domestic life.

John also began to think of marriage, after his brother's example, though he had published "Thoughts on a single life," wherein he advised all unmarried persons, who were able to receive it, to follow the counsel of our Lord and of St. Paul, and "remain single for the kingdom of heaven's sake.” He did not, indeed, suppose that such a precept could have been intended for the many, and assented fully to the sentence of the apostle, who pronounced the " forbidding to marry to be a doctrine of devils." Some notion, however, that the marriage state was incompatible with holiness, seems, in consequence, perhaps, of this treatise, to have obtained ground among some of his followers at one time; for it was asked, at the Conference of 1745, whether a sanctified believer could be capable of mar

take pains in this. Do not cut off your hair; but clean it, and keep it clean. Cure yourself and your family of the itch: a spoonful of brimstone will cure you. To let this run from year to year, proves both sloth and uncleanness: away with it at once; let not the North be any longer a proverb of reproach to all the nation. Use no snuff, unless prescribed by a physician. I suppose no other nation in Europe is in such vile bondage to this silly, nasty, dirty custom, as the Irish are. Touch no dram: it is liquid fire; it is a sure, though slow, poison; it saps the very springs of life. In Ireland, above all countries in the world, I would sacredly abstain from this, because the evil is so general; and to this, and snuff, and smoky cabins, I impute the blindness which is so exceeding common throughout the nation. I particularly desire, wherever you have preaching, that there may be a Little House. Let this be got without delay. Wherever it is not, let none expect to see me."

The meeting-house at Athlone was built and given, with the ground on which it stood, by a single gentleman. In Cork, one person, Mr. Thomas Jones, gave between three and four hundred pounds towards the preaching-house. Towards that in Dublin, Mr. Lunell gave four hundred, pounds. I know no such benefactors among the Methodists in England." Journal, xvi. p. 23.

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riage. The answer was, "Why should he not ?" and probably the question was asked for the purpose of thus condemning a preposterous opinion. When he himself resolved to marry, it appears that he made both his determination and his choice without the knowledge of Charles; and that Charles, when he discovered the affair, found means, for reasons which undoubtedly he must have thought sufficient, to break off the match. But John was offended, and, for a time, there was a breach of that union between them, which had never before been disturbed. It was not long before he made a second choice, and, unfortunately for himself, no one then interfered. The treatise which he had written in recommendation of celibacy, placed him in an unfortunate situation; and, for the sake of appearances, he consulted certain religious friends, that they might advise him to follow his own inclination. His chief counsellor was Mr. Perronet, vicar of Shoreham. Having received a full answer from Mr. Perronet," he says, "I was clearly convinced that I ought to marry. For many years I remained single, because I believed I could be more useful in a single than in a married state; and I praised God who enabled me so to do. I now as fully believed, that, in my present circumstances, I might be more useful in a married state; into which, upon this clear conviction, and by the advice of my friends, I entered a few days after."-He thought it expedient, too, to meet the single men of the Society in London, and show them " on how many accounts it was good for those who had received that gift from God, to remain single for the kingdom of heaven's sake, unless when a particular case might be an exception to the general rule !" To those who properly respected Mr. Wesley, this must have been a painful scene: to his blind admirers, no doubt, comic as the situation was, it was an edifying one.

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The lady whom he married was a widow, by name Vizelle, with four* children, and an independent fortune; but he took care that this should be settled upon herself, and refused to have any command over it. It was agreed also, before their marriage, that he should not preach one sermon, nor travel one mile the less on that account : "if I thought I should," said he, as well as I love you, I would never see your face more." And in his Journal at this time he says, "I cannot understand how a Methodist preacher can answer it to God, to preach one sermon, or travel one day less, in a married than in a single state. In this respect, surely, it remaineth, that they who have wives, be as though they had none." For a little while she travelled with him; but that mode of life, and perhaps the sort of company to which, in the course of their journeys, she was introduced, soon became intolerable-as it must necessarily have been to any woman who did not enter wholly into his views, and partake of his enthusiasm. But, of all women, she is said to

One of them quitted the profession of surgery, because, he said, "it made him less sensible of human pain." Wesley says, when he relates this, "I do not know (unless it unfits us for the duties of life) that we can have too great a sensibility of human pain. Methinks I should be afraid of losing any degree of this sensibility. And I have known exceeding few persons who have carried this tenderness of spirit to excess." He appears to have mentioned the conduct of his son-in-law as to his honour? but he relates elsewhere the saying of another surgeon in a right manly spirit: Mr. Wesley, you know I would not hurt a fly; I would not give pain to any living thing; but, if it were necessary, I would scrape all the flesh off a man's bones, and never turn my head aside."

have been the most unsuited to him. Fain would she have made him, like Mark Antony, give up all for love; and being disappointed in that hope, she tormented him in such a manner, by her outrageous jealousy, and abominable temper, that she deserves to be classed in a triad with Xantippe and the wife of Job, as one of the three bad wives. Wesley, indeed, was neither so submissive as Socrates, nor so patient as the man of Uz. He knew that he was by nature the stronger vessel, of the more worthy gender, and lord and master by law; and that the words, honour and obey, were in the bond."Know me," said he, in one of his letters to her, "and know your self. Suspect me no more, asperse me no more, provoke me no more do not any longer contend for mastery, for power, money, or praise; be content to be a private insignificant person, known and loved by God and me. Attempt no more to abridge me of my liberty, which I claim by the laws of God and man: leave me to be governed by God and my own conscience; then shall I govern you with gentle sway, even as Christ doth the church." He reminded her that she had laid to his charge things that he knew not, robbed him, betrayed his confidence, revealed his secrets, given him a thousand treacherous wounds, and made it her business so to do, under the pretence of vindicating her own character; "whereas," said he, "of what importance is your character to mankind? if you was buried just now, or, if you had never lived, what loss would it be to the cause of God?" This was very true, but not very conciliating; and there are few stomachs which could bear to have humility administered in such doses.

"God," said he, in this same letter, "has used many means to eurb your stubborn will, and break the impetuosity of your temper. He has given you a dutiful, but sickly daughter. He has taken away one of your sons; another has been a grievous cross, as the third probably will be. He has suffered you to be defrauded of much money: He has chastened you with strong pain; and still He may say, how long liftest thou up thyself against me? Are you more humble, more gentle, more patient, more placable than you was? I fear, quite the reverse: I fear your natural tempers are rather increased than diminished. Under all these conflicts, it might be au unspeakable blessing that you have a husband who knows your temper, and can bear with it; who is still willing to forgive you all, to overlook what is past, as if it had not been, and to receive you with open arms; only not while you have a sword in your hand, with which you are continually striking at me, though you cannot hurt me. If, notwithstanding, you continue striking, what can 1, what can all reasonable men think, but that either you are utterly out of your senses, or your eye is not single; that you married me only for my money; that, being disappointed, you was almost always out of humour that this laid you open to a thousand suspicions, which, once awakened, could sleep no more. My dear Molly, let the time past suffice. If you have not (to prevent my giving it to bad women) robbed me of my substance too; if you do not blacken me, on purpose that, when this causes a breach between us, no one may believe it to be your fault; stop, and consider what you do. As yet the