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miserable and guilty of all the human race, who knew you when she thought herself one of the happiest, may be ashamed to write, or speak to you, in her present condition; but the desperate misery of my state makes me attempt any thing that may be a means of removing it. My request is, that you, dear Sir, and such of your happy people who meet in Band, and ever heard the name of that miserable wretch P. T., would join in fasting and prayer on a Tuesday, the day on which I was born, that the Lord would have mercy on me, and deliver me from the power of the devil, from the most uncommon blasphemies, and the expectation of hell, which I labour under, without power to pray, or hope for mercy.May be the Lord may change my state, and have mercy on me, for the sake of his people's prayer. Indeed I cannot pray for myself; and, if I could, I have no hopes of being heard. Nevertheless, He, seeing his people afflicted for me, may, on that account, deliver me from the power of the devil. Oh, what a hell have I upon earth! I would not charge God foolishly, for he has been very merciful to me; but I brought all this evil on myself by sin, and by not making a right use of his mercy. Pray continually for me; for the prayer of faith will shut and open heaven. It may be a means of my deliverance, which will be one of the greatest miracles of mercy ever known."

If Mr. Wesley received this letter in time, it cannot be doubted but that he would have complied with the request. The unhappy writer was in Swift's Hospital, and, perhaps, in consequence of not receiving an answer to her letter, she got her mother to address a similar one to the preacher at Cork, and he appointed two Tuesdays to be observed, as she had requested, both in that city and at Limerick. There may be ground for reasonable suspicion that Methodism had caused the disease; the Cork preacher was apprised, by a brother at Dublin, of the manner in which it operated the cure. "I have to inform you of the mercy of God to Miss T. She was brought from Swift's Hospital on Sunday evening,

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and on Tuesday night, about ten o'clock, she was in the utmost distress. She thought she saw Christ and Satan fighting for her; and that she heard Christ say, I will have her! In a moment hope sprung up in her heart; the promises of God flowed in upon her; she cried out, I am taken from hell to heaven! She now declares she could not tell whether she was in the body or out of it. She is much tempted, but in her right mind, enjoying a sense of the mercy of God. She remembers all that is past, and knows it was a punishment for her sins." As nearly twenty years elapsed before Wesley published these letters, it may be inferred that the cure was permanent.

"Are there any drunkards here?" said a preacher one day in his sermon, applying his discourse in that manner which the Methodists have found so effectual. A poor Irishman looked up, and replied, “Yes, I am one!" And the impression which he then received, enabled him to throw off his evil habits, and become, from that day forward, a reclaimed man. The Methodists at Wexford met in a long barn, and used to fasten the door, because they were annoyed by a Catholic mob. Being thus excluded from the meeting, the mob became curious to know what was done there; and taking counsel together, they agreed that a fellow should get in and secrete himself before the congregation assembled, so that he might see all that was going on, and, at a proper time, let in his companions. The adventurer could find no better means of concealment than by getting into a sack which he found there, and lying down in a situation near the entrance. The people collected, secured the door as usual, and, as usual, began their service by singing. The mob collected also, and, growing impatient, called repeatedly upon their friend Patrick to open the door; but Pat happened to have a taste for music, and he liked the singing so well, that he thought, as he afterwards said, it would be a thousand pities to disturb it. And when the hymn was done, and the itinerant began to pray, in spite of all the vociferation of his comrades, he

thought that, as he had been so well pleased with the singing, he would see how he liked the prayer; but, when the prayer proceeded, "the power of God," says the relater, "did so confound him, that he roared out with might and main; and not having power to get out of the sack, lay bawling and screaming, to the astonishment and dismay of the congregation, who probably supposed that Satan himself was in the barn. Somebody, at last, ventured to see what was in the sack; and helping him out, brought him up, confessing his sins, and crying for mercy." This is the most comical case of instantaneous conversion that ever was recorded, and yet the man is said to have been thoroughly converted.

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A memorable instance of the good effects produced by Methodism was shown, in a case of shipwreck upon the Isle of Cale, off the coast of the county of Down. There were several Methodist societies in that neighbourhood, and some of the members went wrecking with the rest of the people, and others bought, or received presents of the plundered goods. As soon as John Prickard, who was at that time travelling in the Lisburn circuit, heard of this, he hastened to inquire into it, and found that all the societies, except one, had, more or less, “been partakers of the accursed thing.' Upon this he preached repentance and restitution; and, with an almost broken heart, read out sixty-three members on the following Sunday, in Downpatrick; giving notice, that those who would make restitution should be restored, at a proper time, but that for those who would not, their names should be recorded in the general steward's book, with an account of their crime and obstinacy. This severity produced much of its desired effect, and removed the reproach which would otherwise have attached to the Methodists. Some persons, who did not belong to the Society, but had merely attended as hearers, were so much affected by the exhortation and the example, that they desired to make restitution with them. The owners of the vessel empowered Prickard to allow salvage; but, with a proper degree of austerity, he

refused to do this, because the people, in the first instance, had been guilty of a crime. This affair deservedly raised the character of the Methodists in those parts; and it was observed, by the gentry in the neighbourhood, that if the ministers of every other persuasion had acted as John Prickard did, most of the goods might have been saved.

"Although I had many an aching head and pained breast," says one of the itinerants, speaking of his campaigns in Ireland, "yet it was delightful to see hundreds attending to my blundering preaching, with streaming eyes, and attention still as night." damp, dirty,* smoky cabins of Ulster," says another,

The

* There is a letter of advice from Mr. Wesley to one of his Irish preachers (written in 1769), which gives a curious picture of the people for whom such advice could be needful.-" Dear brother," he says, "I shall now tell you the things which, have been, more or less, upon my mind, ever since I was in the North of Ireland. If you forget them, you will be a sufferer, and so will the people; if you observe them, it will be good for both. Be steadily serious. There is no country upon earth where this is more necessary than Ireland, as you are generally encompassed with those who, with a little encouragement, would laugh or trifle from morning till night. In every town visit all you can, from house to house; but on this, and every other occasion, avoid all familiarity with women: this is deadly poison, both to them and to you. You cannot be too wary in this respect. Be active, be diligent; avoid all laziness, sloth, indolence; fly from every degree, every appearance of it, else you will never be more than half a Christian. Be cleanly : in this let the Methodists take pattern by the Quakers. Avoid all nastiness, dirt, slovenliness, both in your person, clothes, house, and all about you. Do not stink above ground!

Let thy mind's sweetness have its operation
Upon thy person, clothes, and habitation.'

HERBERT.

Whatever clothes you have, let them be whole: no rents, no tatters, no rags: these are a scandal to either man or woman, being another fruit of vile laziness. Mend your clothes, or I shall never expect to see you mend your lives. Let none ever see a ragged Methodist. Clean yourselves of lice: take pains in this. Do not cut off your hair; but clean it, and keep it clean. Cure yourself and your family of the itch: a spoonful of brimstone will cure you. To let this run from year to year, proves both sloth and uncleanness: away with it at once; let not the North be any longer a proverb of reproach to all the nation. Use no snuff, unless prescribed by a physician. I suppose no other nation in Europe is in such vile bondage to this silly, nasty, dirty custom, as the Irish are. Touch no dram: it is liquid fire; it is a sure, though slow, poison; it saps the very springs of life. In Ireland, above all countries in the world, I would sacredly abstain from this, because the evil is so general; and to this, and snuff, and smoky cabins, I impute the blindness which is so exceeding common throughout the nation. I particularly desire, wherever you have preaching, that there may be a Little House. Let this be got without delay. Wherever it is not, let none expect to

see me."

"were a good trial; but what makes a double amends for all these inconveniences, to any preacher who loves the word of God, is, that our people here are in general the most zealous, lively, affectionate Christians we have in the kingdom." Wesley himself, while he shuddered at the ferocious character of Irish history, loved the people; and said, he had seen as real courtesy in their cabins, as could be found at St. James's or the Louvre. He found them more liberal than the English Methodists, and he lived to see a larger society at Dublin than any in England, except that in the metropolis.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

WESLEY IN MIDDLE AGE.

IT is with the minds of men as with fermented liquors; they are long in ripening, in proportion to Y their strength. Both the Wesleys had much to work off, and the process, therefore, was of long continuance. In Charles it was perfected about middle life. His enthusiasm had spent itself, and his opinions. were modified by time, as well as sobered by experience. In the forty-first year of his age, he was married by his brother, at Garth, in Brecknockshire, to Miss Sarah Gwynne. "It was a solemn day," says John, "such as became the dignity of a Christian marriage." For a while he continued to itinerate, as he had been wont; but, after a few years, he became a settled man, and was contented to perform the duties and enjoy the comforts of domestic life.

"The meeting-house at Athlone was built and given, with the ground on which it stood, by a single gentleman. In Cork, one person, Mr. Thomas Jones, gave between three and four hundred pounds towards the preaching-house. Towards that in Dublin, Mr. Lunell gave four hundred pounds. I know no such benefacters among the Methodists in England." Journal, xvi. p. 23.

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