Methodism in other regions — Closing days of Wesley, 1791 — Letters to Ezekiel Cooper and others — Last sermon — Illness and Dr. Whitehead — Religious experience — Buried by torchlight at five in the morning of March 9 — Pen-pictures of Wesley by Whitehead, Haweis, Tyerman — Eulogies by Whitehead, Tyerman, and Macaulay — A lost chapter recovered as to his obsequies — Whitehead's sermon given only in full in Stockton's "Whitehead's Life of Wesley " — Secret reasons of Whitehead's persecution by the Conference party — His full vindication in Appendix A.
Did the design of this work permit, it would be intensely interesting to follow Methodism as a missionary organization in the British Islands, France, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, West Indies, and Africa. Stevens is the best authority here. Dr. Coke is a leading spirit, braving the perils and hardships of the ocean, despising personal ease, and pouring out his wealth without stint in the work of spreading the gospel under Methodistic auspices. Duncan Wright, Duncan McAllum, Nathaniel Gilbert, a layman who was converted in England and returning to his West Indies' home at Antigua, established Methodism in his own house, afterward fostered by Coke and Hammett. Brackenbury, another layman, operated in the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, as he could speak Norman French, and also Mahy, De Quetteville, De Jersey, and Toase, to France. John Crook, a local preacher of Liverpool, gave Methodism to the Isle of Man. He is one of the heroes of Wesley. Smyth, a Methodist clergyman, followed up the work. Pierre Le Suour, Cougland, John Fenton, Captain Webb, afterward notable in American Methodism, Jasper Winscombe, and Alexander Kilham, who was a servant in the employ of Brackenbury, a wealthy layman, took part in the evangelization of Jersey. Adam Clarke also did much faithful labor in the islands, specially Alderney. Elizabeth Wallbridge, the original of the "Dairyman's Daughter," will forever perpetuate Wesleyan piety in the Isle of Wight. Joseph Sutliffe for the Seilly Islands, William Black for Nova Scotia, with Freeborn Garrettson, an American, as also James O. Cromwell, did wonders as pioneers in these distant northlands. John McGeary must not go unmentioned in the same connection. On the 24th of September, 1786, Dr. Coke, with Hammett, who will be mentioned later in other associations, Warrener, and Clark embarked from England for Nova Scotia, but terrible storms and a leaking ship drove them for refuge to the West Indies, where they reinforced Gilbert in his lay Methodistic society at Antigua. They visited and formed societies in other islands. Harry, an American slave who had been brought to these islands, is immortal in Methodism, as Harry of St. Eustatius, to distinguish him from "Black Harry," Asbury's traveling companion and eloquent preacher. Coke made voyages to the West Indies in 1788, 1790, and 1792, and made martyr-like sacrifices in establishing the Methodist faith. Near six thousand members were reported before Wesley's death. In far-off Africa, Wesley heard of a society organized at Sierra Leone of 223 Negroes. In this instance Stevens does not name the missionaries, a regrettable fact.
The closing days of Wesley. He continued to write letters early in 1791, to Dr. Clarke, Thomas Taylor, Miss Bolton, and Miss Cambridge, pious young Methodists; John Booth, Thomas Roberts, Mrs. Susannah Knapp, and Ezekiel Cooper, then a young American preacher of great ability, who
lived a celibate and died leaving a large fortune to his relatives in 1847, the oldest Methodist preacher in the world. His letter to Cooper bears date February 1, 1791, only four weeks before his decease. It contains his dying legacy to the American preachers, and is significant as declaring his ruling passion to die Primate of all the Methodists in his societies the world over. It holds a clear intimation that if, even at this late date, he fully comprehended the nature of the American
"separation" at the Christmas conference of 1784, he did not recommend or endorse it. The legacy is in these emphatic words: "See that you never give place to one thought of separation from your brethren in Europe. Lose no opportunity of declaring to all men that the Methodists are one people, in all the world, and that it is their full determination so to continue:
'Though mountains rise and oceans roll, To sever us in vain.'"
Under date of February 14, he wrote to Wilberforce encouraging him in his parliamentary labors to abolish the slave-trade and slavery under British dominion. He continued to visit among his friends, and, though rapidly failing, as all observed, he preached at Chelsea February 15, at City Road February 22, and on the 23d, accompanied by Rodgers, rode eighteen miles to Leatherhead, to visit a magistrate, and in whose dining room he preached from "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near." It was his last sermon. He was brought back to City Road parsonage and requested to be left alone for half an hour. At the end of the time Joseph Bradburn, his faithful attendant, found him so indisposed that he sent for his physician, Dr.
Whitehead, to whom the dying patriarch said, "Doctor, they are more afraid than hurt." This was Friday, February 25. On the 26th he spent the day in drowsiness and sleep. Sunday, 27th, he seemed better, got up and sat in his chair, looked cheerful, and repeated:
"Till glad I lay this body down Thy servant Lord attend;
And oh! my life of mercy crown, With a triumphant end."
Afterward he remarked with emphasis, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." Miss Wesley, his niece, and Miss Ritchie prayed with him. "When at Bristol," said he, alluding to his illness in 1753, "my words were:
'I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me.'"
Miss Ritchie asked, "Is that your language now?" "Yes," said he, "Christ is all! He is all!" On Monday, February 28, his weakness so increased that Dr. Whitehead wished for assistance, but Wesley replied: "Dr. Whitehead knows my constitution better than any one. I am quite satisfied and will have no one else." The day was spent in sleep; but he muttered at times scripture verses.
Tuesday, March 1, after a restless night, he began singing:—
"All glory to God in the sky."
He said soon after, "I will get up," and while his friends were preparing his clothes, he broke out singing:—
"I'll praise my Maker while I've breath."
Once more seated in his chair, he began to sing again, his last song on earth:
"To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Who sweetly all agree."
Put back to bed, he said, "Pray and praise!" He saluted each one present and said, "Farewell, farewell." Summoning his failing strength, he said, "The best of all is God is with us!" Scores of times he repeated, "I'll praise, I'll praise." Wednesday, March 2, Joseph Bradburn prayed with him;
it was a few minutes before ten o'clock. There were around his bed his niece, Miss Wesley; one of his executors, Mr. Horton; his medical attendant, Dr. Whitehead; his book steward, George Whitefield; the present occupants of his house, James and Hester Ann Rodgers, and their little boy;
and his friends and visitors, Robert Carr Brackenbury and Elizabeth Ritchie, — eleven persons altogether. "Farewell!" cried Wesley, — the last word he uttered; and then as Joseph Bradburn, the devoted, was saying, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors; and this heir of glory shall come in," Wesley gathered up his feet in the presence of his brethren and without a sigh or a groan was gone. It was about ten o'clock, A.M., Wednesday, March 2, 1791.
As soon as he was dead, those present gathered about his couch and sang:
"Waiting to receive thy Spirit Lo! the Saviour stands above;
Shows the purchase of his merit, Reaches out the crown of love."
They knelt down and prayed that the mantle of the ascended Elijah might rest upon his followers.
His remains were kept for one week, for which his chroniclers, not even Tyerman, give no reason.
The day before his burial, the body, clad in his gown, cassock, and band, lay in state in the City Road chapel. He had directed in his Will that six poor men should be his bearers, and be compensated with one pound each. While dying, he said, "Let me be buried in nothing but what is woollen; and let my corpse be carried in my coffin into the chapel." Great crowds flocked to see his remains, to look for the last time upon that placid and venerable face. So intense indeed was the excitement that it was found expedient to conceal the time of his burial, and at the early hour of five — his favorite preaching hour — of the morning of the 9th of March, by torchlight, his coffin was interred in its grave prepared in the graveyard of City Road chapel, John Richardson, one of his old preachers, reading the service so impressively at the words, "Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of our deceased father," at the substituted word those present burst out into loud weeping. Tyerman mentions the singular fact that those present were given, "a biscuit, in an envelope, engraven with a beautifully executed portrait of the departed, dressed in canonicals, surmounted with a halo and a crown." That grave has been the Mecca of godly Methodists for more than a century.
Pen-pictures of Wesley agree substantially as to his physique. Whitehead, quoting from one of the contemporary writers, says: "His stature was low; his habit of body in every period of life the reverse of corpulent, and expressive of strict temperance and continual exercise; and, notwithstanding his small size, his step was firm, and his appearance until within a few years of his death vigorous and muscular. His face for an old man was one of the finest we have ever seen. A clear, smooth forehead, an aquiline nose, an eye the brightest and most piercing that can be conceived, and a freshness of complexion scarcely ever to be found at his years, and impressive of the most perfect health, conspired to render him a venerable and interesting figure." Haweis says,[1]
"John Wesley was of inferior size, his visage marked with intelligence, singularly neat and plain in his dress, a little cast in his eye, observable on particular occasions; upright, graceful, and remarkably active." Tyerman says, "In person Wesley was rather below the middle size, but beautifully[2]
proportioned, without an atom of superfluous flesh, yet muscular and strong; with a forehead clear and smooth, a bright and penetrating eye, and a lovely face, which retained the freshness of its complexion to the latest period of his life." He mentions himself that his standard weight through[3]
life was 120 pounds. The late venerable John Chappell, one of the expelled Reformers of Baltimore, and until his decease prominent in the Methodist Protestant Church, St. John's station, and who often heard Wesley preach while he was a young Methodist in London, used to relate, that at the communion, himself below the medium size, standing at the chancel, with Wesley standing inside a step higher, the top of his head was on a line with Chappell's. Procerity is no bar to any other form of greatness. The eulogistic tributes passed upon Wesley are exhaustive of language without exaggeration. There is none finer than Whitehead's, from whom most other biographers copy, often without credit, notably Moore. Stevens is elaborate, covering about sixty twelvemo pages of his history. It is able and apologetic. Tyerman, for condensation and eloquence, is not surpassed: "He stands alone; he had no successor; no one like him went before; no contemporary was a coequal.
There was a wholeness about the man, such as is rarely seen. His physique, his genius, his wit, his penetration, his judgment, his memory, his beneficence, his religion, his diligence, his conversation, his courteousness, his manners, and his dress made him as perfect as we ever expect man to be on this side of heaven." The panegyric of Macaulay, the civilian, must close our allusions: "He was a man whose eloquence and logical acuteness might have rendered him eminent in literature; whose genius for government was not inferior to that of Richelieu; and who devoted all his powers, in defiance of obloquy and derision, to what he sincerely considered the highest good of his species."
There are some lost chapters in Methodism. More recent investigators are recovering them to the completeness of historic data. It is necessary to recover one of these chapters in connection with the immediate obsequies of Wesley. After his decease the preachers of London, at a meeting called to consider the situation and make preparation for the funeral, unanimously selected Dr. John Whitehead to deliver the oration or sermon. Whitehead modestly refers to it in these words, found in the genuine edition of his "Life of Wesley," page 281. "March 9 was the day appointed for his interment. The preachers then in London, to my utter astonishment, insisted that I should deliver the funeral discourse; and the executors afterward approved of the appointment. The intention was to carry the corpse into the chapel, and place it in a raised situation before the pulpit during the service.
But the crowds which came to see the body while it lay in the coffin, both in the private house, and especially in the chapel, the day before the funeral, were so great that his friends were apprehensive of a tumult, if they should proceed on the plan first intended. It was therefore resolved the evening before to bury him between five and six in the morning. Though the time of notice to his friends was
short, and the design itself was spoken of with great caution, yet a considerable number of persons attended at that early hour. The late Mr. Richardson, who now lies with him in the same vault, read the funeral service in a manner which made it peculiarly affecting. The discourse, which was afterward printed, was delivered in the chapel at the hour appointed in the forenoon to an astonishing multitude of people; among whom were many ministers of the gospel, both of the Establishment and the Dissenters. The audience was still and solemn as night; and all seemed to carry away with them enlarged views of Mr. Wesley's character, and serious impressions of the importance of religion, and the utility of Methodism."
These interesting facts are referred to by Watson only of all his biographers, and he quotes Whitehead's account. Moore and Stevens and Tyerman give no hint of this important section of the obsequies. It may be found in full in Stockton's reprint of Whitehead's "Life of Wesley." It is elaborate, and so masterful that the reader will confirm the judgment of the London preachers in his selection for this responsible task. The text is 2 Samuel iii. 38: "Know ye not that there is a prince, etc." It occupies near sixteen octavo pages in minion type, and must have occupied at least two hours in its delivery. It is divided into four parts, considering respectively Wesley as a man of learning and intellect; his religious sentiments, exhaustively treated; his labors as a minister of the gospel; and his experience with him as his chosen physician in his dying days. The time absolutely necessary for the preparation of such a discourse may have been among the reasons for delaying the obsequies for a full week. Dr. Whitehead had been appointed by Wesley's Will, conjointly with Dr. Coke and Henry Moore, one of his literary executors, and at a formal meeting held in London of all the executors, the preachers representing the Conference, and other friends as representing the societies at large, for the purpose of selecting a biographer, on motion of Mr. Rodgers, the superintendent of the London circuit within which Dr. Whitehead resided and labored, he was unanimously selected to write the Life of Wesley, and the ensuing Conference of 1791 approved the selection, and added a farther distinction of making him, though but a local preacher at this time, a member of the Book Committee. He had also been selected previously as the literary executor of Charles Wesley by his widow and near friends, so that all the data, papers, letters, etc., essential to a thorough performance of such an onerous task were put into his possession. He accepted the trust. How well he performed it the genuine edition of his "Life of Charles and John Wesley," preserved in two editions of it for American Methodists, attests. Strenuous efforts were made in England to suppress it, and bury the author in oblivion if not disgrace, so soon as it was found by Coke, Moore, and the Conference party that it was to be an independent and not a partisan work from their point of view. Whitehead was a Dissenter in his principles, though in his "Life of the Wesleys" he adheres to Charles' opinions as to the inconsistency of John's departure from Episcopalianism in the Deed of Declaration and the American Ordinations. He was for the most part of the Methodist locality, and an advocate of popular government for the Methodist people. Such principles and views were a red flag to the bovine nature of the opposition now entrenched in the Legal Hundred, and buttressed by all the property of the United Societies. The bitter and unrelenting controversy which raged around Dr.
Whitehead and his friends made them the center of a strife, the inevitable outcome of the Deed and the Ordinations, which has not ceased in its remoter murmurings to this day in British Methodism.
The reputation of this man merits the fullest vindication possible, without assuming that he was free from faults, contradictions, and frailties in common with his aspersers. It will be found in Appendix A of this volume.
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ENDNOTES 1 "Life of Wesley," Vol. II. p. 298.
2 "History of the Church of Christ," London, 1800, Vol. II. p. 274.
3 "Life of Wesley," Vol. III. p. 656.
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METHODIST REFORM Edward J. Drinkhouse, M.D., D.D.
Volume I