JOHN WESLEY'S USE OF THE PRESS. 229 might have achieved almost any triumph as a literary gladiator, had he entered the arena for the mere purpose of conquest and glory. By the adoption of such a course, however, his name, by this time, would probably have been forgotten; whilst the line of duty he did follow won him an imperishable reputation. Little children loved him, and this was no mean homage paid to his true greatness; and wise and good men revered him. Few persons had a better opportunity of forming a just estimate of his character than the friendly correspondent of Southey,-Alexander Knox, Esq. For the last five-and-twenty years of Wesley's life, he "was acquainted with everything material which concerned him;" during which "long acquaintance" Wesley maintained an "immaculate integrity." Mr. Knox says: "It was impossible to converse with him,-I might say, to look at him, without being persuaded that his heart and mind were animated with the purest and most exalted goodness." "His countenance, as well as conversation, expressed an habitual gaiety of heart, which nothing but conscious virtue and innocence could have bestowed. He was, in truth, the most perfect specimen of moral happiness which I ever saw." It was this "exalted goodness" that secured Wesley so large a share of influence; and led a Prelate of the Church (the pious and learned Bishop Lowth) on one occasion to assign Wesley the "upper seat" at a social entertainment,-a position that belonged by courtesy and the right of dignity and rank to himself,-saying, "May I be found at your feet in another world!" The subject of Wesley's goodness is a beautiful and attractive one for enlargement; but in the present article its expression is limited to his philanthropic efforts by means of the press. The opinions he published respecting slavery and the slave-trade are of this class. It is exceedingly difficult, at the present time, to realize with accuracy how the case stood in regard to a question of this kind in Wesley's day. Few persons were then awake to the moral evil of slavery. The noble band of men,-Wilberforce, Clarkson, and others,-in their earlier efforts, strove rather to check a giant evil they had little hope of destroying. The slave-trade, therefore, rather than slavery itself, was at first opposed. Some of Wesley's friends, too, were strangely blinded to a system that he boldly denounced as the "execrable sum of all villanies." The Countess of Huntingdon trafficked in human nature; and Whitefield, who himself held some fifty slaves, classed them, without hesitation or shame, with his worldly goods and chattels. So little aware was that good man of the gross impropriety of the thing, that he actually appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury for pecuniary aid towards his Orphan House in Georgia, urging, as a reason for liberal help, that with another £1,000 he would purchase an additional number of slaves to work the estate. The biographers of these excellent persons give, it is true, in due form and force, excuses for conduct so opposed to our present views. "How differently," Mr. Philip says, "would Whitefield write, if alive now! But then," his apologist adds, "he was not wiser than his times on the subject of 230 JOHN WESLEY'S USE OF THE PRESS. slavery." Let it be so: only, in justice to Wesley's memory, it should be added, that Whitefield's apology is Wesley's commendation! Long before the nation was aroused to generous indignation and shame on this subject; long before the church awoke to its duty, and took the poor down-trodden victim of commercial cupidity under her wing; Wesley unhesitatingly proclaimed the fearful iniquity of the general system, and described American slavery, in particular, as the vilest that ever saw the sun." In the pulpit he secured "attention, still as night," to his appeals in behalf of the slave; and special prayer, with fasting, was offered up to God, that He would remember the poor outcasts, and break their chains asunder. In the year 1774 he published his "Thoughts upon Slavery;" a most effective and outspoken tract, in which he defines slavery, and notes its origin; upon a comparison of the forefathers of the slave with our own, he gives them the advantage, and thinks England and France might learn honesty of the poor African. He then presents a telling description of the slave-capture, the middle passage, and the subsequent sufferings and toil of the poor slave; he also examines the pleas and apologies for slavery; and concludes with an impassioned and solemn appeal to all concerned in the "complicated villany!" How little willing or able is the historian of the present day to trace to Wesley's use of the press on the subject of slavery the earlier pulsations of the heart of the nation; a heart that afterwards beat with an indignation and power that obtained "liberty for the captive!" The philanthropic men who ultimately won so great a moral victory gained their well-earned reward; and statues, declarative of a nation's homage, and rank and titles to his sons, have been awarded to the chief of them. But Wesley's record is on high; and the day has yet to come when the influence of his advanced views on the nation will be duly and gratefully recognised.❤ John Wesley occasionally published to the world deeply affecting and interesting accounts respecting certain charities which he had established or promoted. It is not to be wondered at that he, who lived whilst at Oxford on £28 per annum, out of an income of £120, and gave away £92 to the poor, should succeed in moving the hearts of others to widespread and liberal efforts for the relief of the destitute; but it was, nevertheless, a new thing in the world to find one man creating, by his personal influence, systems of benevolence and charitable institutions of the kind that arose through Wesley's instrumentality. As early as 1741 he described the distress and want of the hungry, and naked, and sick; and formed plans in London, whereby in a short time the sum of £170 was obtained, and Whilst Wilberforce was struggling in the fearful conflict, Wesley helped to sustain his courage and enlarge his efforts. In addition to a correspondence with the Abolition Committee, within four days of his death, when his extreme feebleness must have made the task an exceedingly difficult one, he addressed a letter to Wilberforce, in which that eminent man's opposition to the slave-trade is commended as a "glorious enterprise," and he is exhorted not to yield to the resistance of men and devils, but to place his strength in God. JOHN WESLEY'S USE OF THE PRESS. 231 about three hundred and thirty persons were provided with needful clothing. At a later period, aged widows were comfortably housed, and provided with "things needful for the body;" and loan-societies were established for the temporary assistance of needy tradesmen, on principles of equity and kindness.* It is not necessary to maintain that, in all respects, John Wesley's views of political economy were the wisest; or that they would be found in keeping with many of the peculiarities of our present social condition : nevertheless, they were strongly declarative of his exuberant goodness, and greatly aided to develop the charities of the present day. His tract entitled "Thoughts on the present Scarcity of Provisions," and his "Estimate of the Manners of the present Times," have this tendency. Some of these publications are extremely curious, and are strongly expressed; but they all show Wesley's intense sympathy with the suffering poor, and prove the Christian courage with which he rebuked the ungodly, and denounced extravagance and vice. His "Word to a Drunkard," and to "an Unhappy Woman," are expressive of the same spirit, and indicate his pity for the abandoned. The "Word to an Unhappy Woman" begins with a startling abruptness and earnestness: "Whither are you going? to heaven or hell?" and then, in a tone of the deepest concern to save the lost, the truth is pressed home upon the conscience and the heart. His "Word to a Condemned Malefactor" was one which, of all men living, he had the greatest right to utter; and must have been published in grateful hope, under a thankful recollection of the many gracious scenes which he himself had witnessed in the prison-cell. One effect of Wesley's untiring philanthropy was the creation of a new idea in this country respecting charity; and the bringing into existence some of the most valuable benevolent institutions that this nation possesses. "The Strangers' Friend Society" justly stands in the forefront of the number; and is reckoned as "the brightest gem in the diadem of England's greatness and glory." This Society is of Wesleyan origin.† Wesley's personal exertion for the temporal relief of the poor was extraordinary, and was continued with untiring diligence throughout his lengthened life. He says, "On this, and the four following days, I walked through the town, and begged £200, in order to clothe them that needed it most. But," he adds,-and he was more than eighty years of age at the time,—"it was hard work, as most of the streets were filled with melting snow, which often lay ankle-deep; so that my feet were steeped in snowwater nearly from morning till evening." † Under date of March 14th, 1790, John Wesley says, “In the`morning I met the Strangers' Society, instituted wholly for the relief, not of our Society, but for poor, sick, friendless strangers. I do not know that I ever heard or read of such an institution till within a few years ago. So this, also, is one of the fruits of Methodism." As early as 1784 the Methodists in London, under Wesley's direction, were engaged in this work; and in the year 1790 Wesley drew up a paper for the instruction of the Bristol members, in which he explains the origin of the Society, and fixes the rules of it. The original document, in John Wesley's handwriting, and with his name appended, is at hand; the last clause, containing internal evidence of its authorship, |