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the Sunday before, and, withal, that I intended to preach; desiring they, and they only, would meet me there who could do it without prejudice to their business or families. On Friday abundance of people came. I began preaching between eight and nine, and we continued until a little beyond noon of night, singing, praying, and praising God."

Wesley later declares: "Exceeding great are the blessings that we have found therein. It has generally been an extremely solemn season, when the Word of God sunk deep into the heart, even of those who till then knew him not." To the charge that it was only the novelty of the thing he replied: "Be it so; however, the impression then made on many souls has never since been effaced. Now, allowing that God did make use of novelty or any other indifferent circumstance in order to bring sinners to repentance, yet they are brought. And herein let us rejoice together."

During this entire period Charles Wesley was the coadjutor and counselor of the founder; a religious poet of the first order, a preacher of amazing eloquence and force, though much more variable than his brother. Many of his hymns were improvised while preaching; others were written for special occasions and by John Wesley were set to music. The enthusiasm of Methodists made them the finest singers in the kingdom.

In 1738, before their conversion, in the technical term, they had published a book of selections, which included some original hymns; the next year two, the following year one, and in 1742 another, in which most of the hymns. were by Charles Wesley. Whatever subject disturbed the public mind, his prolific muse took up, and a hymn or a poem was the result. In 1749 a collection of hymns and sacred poems in two volumes was published, with the name

of Charles Wesley alone as the author. Many thousands singing marvelously fervent descriptions of religious experience in every stage from conviction to the highest attainments of Christian life-the whole sustained by a framework of doctrine rigorously clear and logical in definition, expressed in vigorous English-produced an effect hardly second to that of the preaching. It was alike instructive and inspiring, afforded the materials for maintaining services in the absence of preachers, and attracted many to the meetings who would never have been drawn to hear any minister, however renowned.

An incidental benefit, the value of which it is difficult to overestimate, was that Methodists committed the hymns to memory, thus enriching their vocabularies by the language and poetic similes, and especially by the spiritual and pathetic terms with which they abounded, so that they were able to speak and pray with astonishing eloquence.

Through life Charles Wesley suffered from ill health, which, in the opinion of Dr. Whitehead, the physician of the family, was the result of the asceticism of his early days. He was of great use to his brother, especially in counteracting his natural credulity and warning him against a tendency to believe fair promises, religious words, and deferential manners. Without the characteristics of leadership, he was yet so strong in High-church feeling that on various occasions, if his views had prevailed, the growth of Methodism would have been checked, and little more than an invisible influence would have descended to future generations.

The most useful and in all respects the most extraordinary accession to Methodism was Jean Guillaume de la Fléchère, a native of Switzerland, a student of philology and philosophy, a master of French, German, Latin, Hebrew,

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and Greek, educated at Geneva, and intended for the ministry, but choosing the army because he was unable to subscribe to the doctrine of predestination. At twenty years of age he enlisted with the rank of captain, under the Portuguese flag. About 1755 he united with the Methodist Society, and in two years was ordained in the Church of England, becoming in 1760 rector of Madeley, where he equaled, if he did not surpass, the brothers Wesley in zeal, fidelity, liberality, and self-denial. He affiliated with the Countess of Huntingdon, and became president of a theological seminary established by her, but resigned on account of doctrinal differences. Subsequently he espoused the cause of Mr. Wesley. This devout man became an ascetic. "He lived on vegetables, and for some time on milk and water and bread; he sat up two whole nights in every week for the purpose of praying, reading, and meditating on religious things; and on other nights never allowed himself to sleep as long as he could keep his attention to the book before him." He afterward acknowledged the error of this course. About the time of his ordination, determining to spend his days in England, he Anglicized his name, calling himself John Fletcher. Southey speaks of him as "a saintly man, carrying on the work of controversy with correspondent candor and distinguished ability." By the sweetness of his spirit he was of immense advantage to John Wesley, defending him when he could not defend himself, and exerting a much-needed influence in the direction of universal charity and caution. The testimony of Southey is not open to the charge of exaggeration: "Fletcher of Madeley was a man of whom Methodism may well be proud, as the most able of its defenders; and whom the Church of England may hold in honorable remembrance, as one 1 Southey's "Life of Wesley," vol. ii., p. 208.