6C> History of Methodism. 



to dispose of themselves ; and by bringing themselves under the ne- 

 cessity of such a plan, they might correct the impotence of a mind 

 that had been used to live by humor and chance, and prepare it by 

 degrees to bear the other restraints of a holy life. The next thing 

 was to put them upon keeping the fasts, visiting the poor, and com- 

 ing to the weekly sacrament: not only to subdue the body, increase 

 charity, and obtain divine grace, but (as he expressed it) to cut oft' 

 their retreat to the world. He judged that if they did these things, 

 men would cast out their name as evil, and, by the impossibility of 

 keeping fair any longer With the world, oblige them to take their 

 whole refuge in Christianity. But those whose resolutions he thought 

 would not bear this test he left to gather strength by their secret 

 exercises. It was his earnest care to introduce them to the treas- 

 ures of wisdom and hope in the Holy Scriptures ; to teach them not 

 only to endure that book, but to form themselves by it, and to fly to 

 it as the great antidote against the darkness of this world. For 

 some years he and his friends read the New Testament together at 

 evening. He laid much stress upon self-examination. He taught 

 them to take account of their actions in a very exact manner by 

 writing a constant diary ; then, to keep in their minds an awful 

 sense of God's presence, with a constant dependence on his will, he 

 advised them to ejaculatory prayers. The last means he recom- 

 mended was meditation. Their usual time for this was the hour 

 next before dinner. After this he committed them to God. What 

 remained for him to do was to discourage them in the discomforts 

 and temptations they might feel, and to guard them against all spir- 

 itual delusions. In this spiritual care of his acquaintance Mr. 

 Wesley persisted amidst all discouragements. I could say a great 

 deal of his private piety — how it was nourished by continual re- 

 course to God, and preserved by a strict watchfulness in beating 

 down pride and reducing the craftiness and impetuosity of nature 

 to a child-like simplicity, and in a good degree crowned with divine 

 love and victory over the whole set of earthly passions. He thought 

 prayer to be more his business than anything else; and I have seen 

 him come out of his closet with a serenity of countenance that was 

 next to shining — it discovered what he had been doing, and gave 

 me double hope of receiving wise directions in the matter about 

 which I came to consult him. He is now gone to Georgia as a mis- 

 sionary, where there is ignorance that aspires after divine wisdom, 

 but no false learning that is got above it. (Gambold.) 



