WESLEY PREACHING ON HIS FATHER'S TOMB.

Here, on this solemn spot, Wesley takes his stand, and over the ashes of his sainted father, and the former Pastor of his assembled hearers, he announces that, "the kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." What emotions must have stirred his heart, what thoughts and reminiscences must have swept through his mind, during that one service! Among the thousand topics which rose to his memory would not his departed sire's last words hold a prominent place? "Be steady," said the venerable man, as he laid his trembling hands upon the head of his youngest son, "Be steady. The Christian faith will surely revive in this kingdom: you shall see it, though I shall not." Blessed words! so prophetic at the time of their utterance, and so soon to be fulfilled by the godly toils of his own gifted sons. Whatever Wesley felt on this memorable occasion, he locked up the secret in his own breast: not one word in his Journals or letters hints at any peculiar emotion. He has been accused of great want of feeling for standing over his father's remains, even to publish the Gospel; and Southey, who undertakes to rebuke the accusation, supposes him to have been influenced in his selection of a rostrum by the conviction, "that he should derive a deeper passion from the ground upon which he stood; like the Greek tragedian, who when he performed Electra,' brought into the theatre the urn containing the ashes of his own child!" All this may be very pretty and very classical; but to apply it to John Wesley shows a lamentable ignorance of his true character. He was neither stoic, enthusiast, nor play-actor; but a sober, earnest, and godly Minister, who never descended even to tricks of oratory, much less to tricks of the stage, under the false idea that they would give effect to the truths which he proclaimed. His father's tomb was probably the most convenient spot for commanding his congregation, "and he had not stood with a holier or more reverential feeling beside that grave" when his eyes rained down their rivers of tears upon his father's coffin than he now stands over the very spot and preaches "the kingdom of God." To his congregation the scene was, no doubt, impressive and monitory; and Wesley, with his accustomed facility of seizing hold of every circumstance calculated to render his discourses impressive, might possibly press the fact into the service of illustration; but that he deliberately selected this solemn standing-place for the sake of effect, is a flight of fancy too wonderful for our wildest imaginings to take.

Eight successive nights did he stand upon the same spot; and in few places during his whole life did he preach with more glorious results. Every day the interest became more intense; and every night augmented crowds hung upon his lips, and felt that his doctrine dropped as the rain, his speech distilled as the dew, "as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass," because he published the name of the

before writing this paper, I have been compelled to take the inscription at second-hand. It is copied from Dr. Clarke's "Wesley Family," where the Doctor says, "I give it line for line with the original." I have no doubt, therefore, of its accuracy.

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WESLEY PREACHING ON HIS FATHER'S TOMB.

Lord. (Deut. xxxii. 2, 3.) On the sixth night he expounded and applied Ezekiel's vision of the resurrection of the dry bones: "and great indeed was the shaking among them; lamentation and great mourning were heard; God bowing their hearts, so that on every side, as with one accord, they lift up their voice and wept aloud." The seventh night was more remarkable still. He preached from one of his favourite subjects,"the righteousness of the law, and the righteousness of faith ;" and, while he was speaking, "several dropped down as dead; and among the rest, such a cry was heard, of sinners groaning for the righteousness of faith, as almost drowned" his "voice. But many of these soon lifted up their heads with joy, and broke out into thanksgiving; being assured they now had the desire of their soul, the forgiveness of their sins."

On this memorable night, also, there was one case of religious awakening too deeply interesting to be passed over without a separate notice. Somewhere in the neighbourhood there resided a wealthy, godless man, in well-to-do circumstances, who boasted that he was "of no religion," and had not been to any service of public worship for more than thirty years. From some motive or other he swelled the crowd of Wesley's hearers; and the Preacher's earnest and pungent appeals found a way to his heart. At the close of the sermon he stood motionless as a statue. Wesley, who had observed him during the service, asked him abruptly, "Sir, are you a sinner?" "Sinner enough!" was the prompt reply: "and he continued staring upwards till his wife and a servant or two, who were all in tears, put him into his chaise and carried him home." Nearly ten years afterwards Wesley found this same gentleman still in the neighbourhood, "and was agreeably surprised to find him strong in faith, though exceeding weak in body." For some years "he had been rejoicing in God, without either doubt or fear; and was then waiting for the welcome hour, when he should depart and be with Christ."

The eighth and last night of his stay, the devoted evangelist preached on the beginning of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, to "a vast multitude gathered from all parts." He continued among them nearly three hours, from six to nine; and they then scarcely knew how to part. As he surveys the result of his week's hallowed toil, and looks upon the whitened harvest-field inviting the sickle of the reaper, he exclaims, 0, let none think his labour of love is lost because the fruit does not immediately appear! Near forty years did my father labour here; but he saw little fruit of all his labour. I took some pains among this people too; and my strength also seemed spent in vain. But now the fruit appeared. There were scarce any in the town on whom either my father or I had taken any pains formerly, but the seed sown so long since, now sprung up, bringing forth repentance and remission of sins."

We should, however, form but a very imperfect conception of the labours of these eight days of refreshing, if we confined our attention to the evening scrmon delivered from the tombstone. Epworth was made the head of a Circuit for the time being, from which Wesley sallied forth, on horseback or on foot, to many surrounding villages. Burnham,

WESLEY PREACHING ON HIS FATHER'S TOMB.

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Ouston, where the Clergyman "offered him the church, and then altered his mind;" Belton, where he stood "under a shady oak;" Overthorpe, Haxey, and Wroote, where John Whitelamb, his brother-in-law, lent him the church, which "could not contain the people, many of whom came from far,"-were all summoned to repentance by the clarion-blast of his trumpet. In addition to this, he visited the sick, and as many others as desired it, at their own homes; he held long conversations with some who had gone astray from the simple doctrine of Christ; and he carefully examined the members of Society "one by one." He had also to throw his shield over some of the poor people who were harassed and "persecuted for righteousness' sake;" his own record of which is really too choice to be omitted. "Wednesday, 9th.-I rode over to a neighbouring town, to wait upon a Justice of Peace, a man of candour and understanding; before whom, I was informed, their angry neighbours had carried a whole wagon-load of these new heretics. But when he asked what they had done, there was a deep silence; for that was a point their conductors had forgot. At length one said, 'Why, they pretended to be better than other people: and, besides, they prayed from morning to night.' Mr. S. asked, But have they done nothing besides?' 'Yes, Sir,' said an old man: 'an't please your Worship, they have convarted my wife. Till she went among them, she had such a tongue! And now she is as quiet as a lamb. Carry them back, carry them back,' replied the Justice, and let them convert all the scolds in the town.''

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We have thus sketched Wesley's first evangelistic visit to his native place; and, if our space permitted, we would gladly follow him through the deeply-interesting records of his subsequent labours in that interesting spot. The town held a large place in his affections to the end of life. "I rode to Epworth," says, he, on one occasion, "which I still love beyond most places in the world." At least fifty-one times did he visit it in forty-eight years; and generally one Sabbath, and two or three week-days, were spent within its borders. He saw what he regarded as a large and handsome "house" of worship erected; he beheld the Society "multiply and grow," until they became a model to all the Societies in England; he had to mourn over their decline in piety and numbers, until, at his last visit, he was compelled to tell them frankly that they were but "a shadow of their former selves." His visits on several occasions were at the time of his birth-day; and in the place of his nativity he wrote two or three of the loveliest pictures of old age which ever flowed from human pen. To the end of his days his Epworth congregations continued to increase rather than decline; and on his last visit, only seven months before his death, he writes: "As soon as the afternoon service ended," that is, in the church, I began in the marketplace to press that awful question, 'How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?' on such a congregation as was never seen at Epworth before." It is worthy of remark that his pulpit on this occasion was not his "father's tomb," but the "MARKET CROSS." The year after his first visit, he again stood over the ashes of his father, and preached

6 THE SICK MAN'S MISTAKE; OR, AM I RESPONSIBLE FOR MY BELIEF?

from, "And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest." (Heb. viii. 11.) But ever after that he preached either in "the house," or in the "market-place." The reason probably was, that Mr. Romley, the intolerant Curate, who was the first Clergyman to refuse him the holy Sacrament of the Supper, forbad Wesley any more to preach on his father's tomb. J. K.

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