CHAPTER II. 



Methodist — one who lives according to the method laid down in 

 the Bible. (Dictionary of J. Wesley, 17.5:3.) 



A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directetli his steps. 



(Prov. xvi.9.) 



IN November, 1729, four young men at Oxford Uni- 

 versity, in England, formed a society for their 

 mutual improvement in learning and religion. As the 

 name of Methodists was given to the members of this 

 society by the college wits, as well from the regularity 

 of their lives as from the systematic mode of their 

 studies, so also from their earnest attention to the 

 duties of religion was their society itself called, in 

 the way both of ridicule and censure, the Holy Club. 

 "I cannot but heartily approve of that serious and 

 religious turn of mind that prompts you and your 

 associates to those pious and charitable offices," said 

 a clergyman of known wisdom and integrity, in full ac- 

 cord with the Hector of Epworth, in a letter of encour- 

 agement to John Wesley, the President of the Society; 

 " and I can have no notion of that man's religion or 

 concern for the honor of the university that opposes 

 you as far as your design respects the colleges. I 

 should be loath to send a son of mine to any seminary 

 where his conversation with young men whose pro- 

 fessed design of meeting together at proper times was 

 to assist each other in forming good resolutions, and 

 encouraging one another to execute them with con- 

 4 (49) 



