LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. John Wesley Epworth Rectory Epworth Rectory, East Front John Wesley at the Age of 23 Oxford and Its Colleges Christ Church College and Wolsey's Gate, Oxford St. Mary's Church, Oxford Gateway of St. Mary's Church, Oxford Parish Church, Epworth Samuel Wesley's Tombstone John Wesley at 60 Interior of St. Mary's Church, Oxford Radcliffe Library, Oxford City Road Chapel, London John Wesley's Chair John Wesley's Desk John Wesley's Clock John Wesley's Teapot Wesley in His Old Age John Wesley's Tomb in Rear of City Road Chapel Charles Wesley Wesley Memorial Tablet, Westminster Abbey Bust of John Nelson Birth-place of John Nelson George Whitefield Nyon, Lake Leman, the Birth-place of John Fletcher The Palatine Methodists Leaving Limerick Grave of Philip Embury, Ashgrove, N.Y. Old Blue Church-yard and Grave of Barbara Heck Francis Asbury Birth-place of Francis Asbury MAKERS OF METHODISM. I. A FOREWORD. METHODISM is in a very special sense the child of Providence. It is a happy feature in its history that it was not cradled in conflict, but was born of a religious revival. The origin of the Reformed churches in Bohemia, in Germany, in Switzerland, in France, in the Low Countries, in Scotland, was amid the throes of civil war. This gave a degree of hardness to certain aspects of religion and left a heritage of bitter memories. While it developed much of moral heroism, it also developed much of the sterner side of our nature, and sometimes evoked vindictive. passions. No one can be familiar with the stirring tale of the conflict between Romanism and Protestantism, and of the strifes between different sections of the Reformed religion, without seeing and lamenting that often reproach was brought upon the cause of Christ by the passionate zeal and lack of charity of Christian men. Persecution upon one side sometimes led to persecution on the other. Even the valour and fidelity of such heroes as Ziska and Gustavus Adolphus, of William the Silent and Admiral Coligny, of Cromwell and Knox, of Zwingle and of Duke Maurice of Saxony, were not unmarred by elements of human harshness and infirmity. But, in the providence of God, Methodism had a milder and a happier development. Not that it was without persecution and suffering. It had enough of both to develop the grandest heroism, the most intrepid fortitude, and the noblest endurance even unto death. Yet it never appealed to the sword. Like the great founder of Christianity, it turned its cheek to the smiter; it suffered with a quietness of spirit the very tyranny and rage of its foes. No tinge of iconoclastic zeal or of retaliating sternness mars the saintly character of the Wesleys and their fellowhelpers. Their spirit was that of St. John, breathing the benedictions of love. The motto of John Wesley was typical of his life and ministry: "With charity to all, with malice to none." Methodism was first of all a revival of pure religion in the hearts of a group of earnest young students of Oxford University. They had no wish to create a new sect or to make war upon the Church they loved. They sought its spiritual awakening and reformation. They preached from the parish pulpits, and when thrust from the Church of their fathers they preached on their fathers' graves, on the village common, in the market-place and by the wayside. Methodism was not the result of political exigencies or of ecclesiastical councils. It was not framed by kings or potentates, by bishops or priests. Like its blessed Lord, it was born in lowliness, and grew in favour with God and with man. Many different types of character were among the agents whom God used in its development, the lofty and the lowly, the gentle and the simple, the learned and the illiterate, the rich and the poor. Among its founders were some of the most scholarly Fellows of Oxford. Among its faithful preachers were also "unlearned and ignorant men -as the world measures learning. There were such men as John Nelson, the Yorkshire mason; as Silas Told, the converted sailor; as Samuel Bradburn, the shoemaker's apprentice; as John Hunt, the rustic ploughman; and as Peter Mackenzie, the shepherd and collier. From the lowly walks of life came many of the boldest soldiers of this new crusademen who, like the herdsman of Tekoa, came from following the oxen and the plough; men from the smithy and the loom; husbandmen and fishermen like the first disciples of our Lord; men from the mine and from the moor. Yet were there also those of wealth and noble rank, as Lord Dartmouth, Lord St. John, Mary Bosanquet and the Countess of Huntingdon, and others in high places who, like the Magi, laid their wealth and titles at the feet of Jesus. But, for the most part, this great revival came with its revelation of love to the souls of the poor. The common people heard it gladly. To the great heart of suffering humanity,-burdened with its sorrows and its sins, with its sordid cares as to what it should eat, and what it should drink, and wherewithal it should be clothed; with its immortal hunger which the husks of this world could not satisfy; with its divine thirst that the broken cisterns of earthly pleasure could not appease,-came the emancipating message of salvation, came the bread of heaven and the water of life. "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." In the pages that follow we shall select a few examples of the noble men and women whom God raised up on both sides of the sea to carry out His purposes of grace-to perform grace—to perform a great work in the world. We cannot attempt anything like a complete history of the great world-movement of Methodism. That would require many volumes larger than this. The selection of certain Makers of Methodism involves the omission of others perhaps as noteworthy as some whom we present. We have endeavoured to maintain historic sequence, although the periods treated have of necessity, in some cases, overlapped. The study of a few prominent actors in this great movement will illustrate its spirit as a whole, will give unity and interest to the narrative, and will prevent the distraction caused by the attempted characterization of a great number of persons. As to authorities, we are chiefly indebted to the |