136 



THEODORE ROBERTS, ESQ.. ON 



filled in every true Minister of Christ?) ' The Spirit of the Lord 

 is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel 

 to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to 

 preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the 

 blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the 

 acceptable year of the Lord.' 



As is apparent from his own words describing the incident and 

 what led up to it, Wesley's habit of mind was essentially conserva- 

 tive, and it therefore required the most definite assurance that he 

 was obeying his conscience to enable him to set at naught the 

 religious conventions of his day, in which he had been brought 

 up, and on the side of which were ranged the power of the estab- 

 lished church, which still commanded Wesley's love and venera- 

 tion. 



It was not the first time that Christian preachers had used 

 the fields even in our own country, and on this particular occa- 

 sion W^esley had been preceded by Whitefield, but what gave 

 Wesley's first open-air sermon its decisive character arose from 

 those extraordinary gifts of leadership and authority which he 

 possessed beyond any other man of his time. 



Henceforth, he turned not back, and as he was gradually shut 

 out from the churches, and public assembly halls were not yet, he 

 was compelled to rely almost exclusively on field-preaching. 



For over fifty years he continued this work, until England, 

 Scotland and Ireland were studded with Methodist Societies, all 

 looking up to Wesley as their founder. 



Had he flinched at the critical moment from doing violation to 

 his preconceived notions, it is difficult to see how he could ever 

 have been a real power for world-wide good, as his opportunities 

 for preaching would have been narrowed down to the few and tiny 

 meeting-houses of the new society. 



Some historians have said that it was the Wesleyan movement 

 which saved England from the horrors of the French revolution 

 by producing a new spirit among the working classes. But 

 whether this be so or not, this movement undoubtedly was the 

 parent of that revival which led to the establishment of the mis- 

 sionary societies and, in the last century, to the sending forth of 

 Christ's Gospel from this our land to the very ends of the earth. 

 kl the present time, I believe, there is only one country in the 

 world into which Christian missionaries have not penetrated, 

 Afghanistan, and this on account of some Convention between our 

 Government and the old Eussian Government prohibiting propa- 

 ganda from either side. 



If those persons who presume to think that Christianity is 

 decaying and may ultimately disappear from the world, would 

 take the trouble to contrast the condition of the Christian religion 



