IV.

JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY-FOUNDERS OF

METHODISM.

THE Epworth rectory may well be called the cradle of Methodism. The group of boys and girls who gathered around the knees of Susanna Wesley may not unfitly be regarded as a type of the great family of Epworth Leaguers who are being trained up in the household of Methodism in Christian culture and Christian service.

Of the nineteen children of Samuel and Susanna Wesley several were in after life distinguished for piety, intelligence and scholarship. Others were remarkable for wit and vivacity. The eldest son, Samuel, became a very learned clergyman and author of some noble hymns. Others also had poetic talent. Several of the children died in childhood, but thirteen of them were living at one time, and must have made the old Epworth rectory alive with youthful fun and frolic.

Two members of this remarkable family have won world-wide fame as the chief founders of Methodism. John Wesley, the elder of the two, born in 1703, is described as having a boyish turn for wit and humour. His brother Charles, five years younger,

was exceedingly sprightly and active, and remarkable for courage and skill in juvenile encounters with his school-fellows. We have already described the home-training of this first Methodist household,

and the providential rescue of little John Wesley from destruction by fire.

When only thirteen years old "Jacky," as he is named in his mother's letters, left the sheltering rooftree of the Epworth rectory for the cloisters of Charterhouse School, London. This was an old monastery founded five hundred years ago. After its

dissolution by Henry VIII. it became the family seat of the Howards, and the court of Queen Elizabeth and of King James. It was converted into a school for forty boys and an asylum for eighty poor gentlemen. It has an annual revenue of $150,000. Among its famous scholars were Addison, Steele, Blackstone, Wesley, Grote, Havelock and Thackeray. In Wesley's day the food for the brain was better than that for the body, and Jacky was nearly starved. obeyed the wise counsel of his father, that he should run around the large garden three times a day. He thus got up an excellent appetite, even if he did not get very much to gratify it.

He

In three years he entered Christ Church College, Oxford, where he continued his classical studies. He became Greek lecturer at the University when a little more than twenty-three years old. In Hebrew, too, he was one of the best scholars of the age. About this time he was joined by his younger brother Charles. When John was twenty-eight and Charles was twenty-three, the famous "Holy Club" was formed. It consisted of a little group of students who met together for the study of the Greek Testament, for self-examination and prayer. Their methodical lives led to their receiving the epithet of "Methodists," a name of contempt which was destined to become one of highest honour.

While Epworth rectory may be called the cradle of Methodism, it was at Oxford that it received its strong impress of intellectual culture. It must never be forgotten that it was in the first university of

Europe that this child of Providence was fostered and trained. They were no illiterates those Fellows of Oxford who met for the study of the oracles of God in their original tongues. With the instincts of true learning, having kindled their torches at the altar fire of eternal truth, they went forth to diffuse the light, to illumine the darkness, and as heralds to proclaim the dawn of a new day. The University crest has in this connection a prophetic significance. It is an open Bible with the motto, "DOMINVS ILLVMINATIO MEA"-The Lord is my Light. Though the mission of Methodism has been largely like that of the Christ of Nazareth, to preach the Gospel to the poor and lowly, it has been the better able to do this because it has sought to

"Unite the pair so long disjoined,

Knowledge and vital Piety."

Amid the stately surroundings of Oxford, that city of colleges which has trained so many of the English scholars and statesmen, the Wesleys, Whitefield, Coke and other early Methodist leaders received that broad culture, that sound classical learning, that strict logical training, which so efficiently equipped them for the great life-work they were to do. This lends special interest to a visit to this Mecca of Methodist pilgrimage.

This venerable seat of learning, dating from the time of Alfred, the ancient Oxenforde-its cognizance is still a shield with an ox crossing a stream-has a singularly attractive appearance as seen from a