The History of Christianity - John S. C. Abbott (bookstand for reading .txt) 📗

unsuccessful. The disturbed state of the colony was such, that he could get no access to the Indians. Though at first he had a large and flourishing congregation of colonists to address in Savannah, there soon sprang up very bitter alienation between him and the people of his charge. They rebelled against the strictness of discipline which he attempted to introduce. He refused to admit dissenters from the Episcopal Church to the communion, unless they were rebaptized; insisted upon immersion as the mode of performing that rite; and became involved in a very serious matrimonial difficulty.

The result was, that he soon found his influence at an end in Georgia. After a residence of two years at Savannah, he returned to England, “shaking the dust off his feet,” as he said, in testimony against the colonists. Recrossing the Atlantic, he visited the colony of Moravian Christians, or United Brethren as they were also called, at Hernhult, in Upper Lusatia. This colony was founded by Count Zinzendorf upon what he considered as the model of the primitive apostolic Christians. Leaving out all the distinctive doctrines of the various Protestant denominations, he adopted as articles of faith only those fundamental scriptural truths in which all evangelical Christians agree.

Mr. Wesley soon made the extraordinary discovery, as he himself states, that he had never been truly converted. While crossing the ocean to lead others to the Saviour, he had never come to that Saviour himself. “He felt,” he said, “a want of the victorious faith of more experienced Christians.” Agitated by these thoughts, he at length, in his estimation, became a subject of that renewing grace entitled in the Bible being “born again.” So sudden was this change, that he could not only point out the day and the hour, but the moment also, when it took place. “It was,” he says, “at quarter before nine o’clock on the evening of May 24, at a meeting of a society in Aldergate Street, when one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans.”

In this respect, the experience of Mr. Wesley was somewhat similar to that of Dr. Chalmers. He at once began his labors of preaching the gospel of Christ, with zeal and success, perhaps, never surpassed. George Whitefield, one of the most impassioned and eloquent of sacred orators, joined him. They both preached several times a day in the prisons, and at all other places where they could gain an audience. Their fervor attracted crowds; and strong opposition began to be manifested against them. As the Established clergy refused to open their churches to these zealous preachers, they addressed audiences in the open fields, and particularly in an immense building called the Foundery at Moorsfield. Here Mr. Wesley organized his first church of but eight to ten persons. There was at that time great deadness in the Established Church. Many of the nominal pastors were utterly worldly men, who made no profession of piety. The clergy were often younger sons of nobles, who had been placed over the churches simply through the influence of their fathers, that they might enjoy the revenues of the church. Reckless men, devoted to pleasure, they were called “fox-hunting parsons;” and the church became often the scene only of a heartless round of ceremonies. The masses of the people found nothing in such a religion either to cheer them in their sorrows, or to animate them to a holy life.

The preaching of Wesley and his companions came directly home to the hearts of the people. It was the earnest and impassioned utterance to weary souls of the good news and glad tidings of the gospel. The little church of eight or ten members which he established at the Foundery was composed of those who, as Wesley testifies, “came to him and desired him to spend some time with them in prayer, and advise them how to escape from the wrath to come.”

The church at the Foundery rapidly increased in numbers: crowds flocked to listen to the earnest preaching. The building was converted into a chapel, and became the centre of operations. From this centre, Wesley and his associates made constant journeys into the surrounding country, sometimes to a great distance, preaching wherever they went. They generally preached twice every day, and four times on the sabbath. At Kensington Common, Wesley at one time addressed a concourse estimated to be not less than twenty thousand persons.

“Wesley devoted himself to his work in Great Britain with such completeness, that scarcely an hour was abstracted from the cause on which he had set his heart. He seldom travelled less than forty miles a day; and until near the close of life, when he used a chaise, generally went on horseback. It is said that not an instance can be found, during a period of fifty years, wherein the severest weather hindered him for a single day. His journeys extended to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, in each of which countries he preached with great success. He formed societies, and placed lay preachers over them; appointed class-leaders, and established schools, the most important of which was that of Kingswood, near Bristol, which was designed more particularly for the education of the sons of preachers. The most extraordinary revivals followed his ministry, especially among the poor and destitute in the mining and manufacturing districts.”218

Though Wesley continued to adhere to the Established Church, still the principles of tolerance which he advocated tended more and more, every day, to cause the rapidly-increasing Methodist churches to be regarded as a distinct sect. At the first conference of the Methodist clergy at the Foundery Chapel, in 1744, eight preachers were present. Wesley then said,—

“You cannot be admitted to the church of Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, or any others, unless you hold the same opinions with them, and adhere to the same mode of worship. The Methodists alone do not insist upon your holding this or that opinion; but they think, and let think. Neither do they impose any particular mode of worship; but you may continue to worship in your former manner, be it what it may. Now, I do not know any other religious society, either ancient or modern, wherein such liberty of conscience is now allowed, or has been allowed since the days of the apostles. Here is our glorying, and it is a glorying peculiar to us.”

In the year 1752, Wesley married a widow with four children. But the religious zeal which inspired him was singularly manifested in the marriage contract, in which it was stipulated that he should not preach one sermon the less, nor travel one mile the less, on account of his change of condition. It is, perhaps, not strange that the marriage did not prove a happy one. After a life of activity and usefulness to which few parallels can be found, John Wesley died in London on the 2d of March, 1791, in the eighty-third year of his age. The last four days of his life were days of Christian triumph, in which the veteran servant of Christ found that faith in Jesus did indeed make him victor over death and the grave. It is estimated, that, during his ministry of sixty-five years, he travelled about two hundred and seventy thousand miles, and delivered over forty thousand sermons, besides addresses, exhortations, and prayers. The denomination of which he was the founder is now exerting in England and the United States an influence second certainly to that of none other; and it is every hour increasing in all the elements of prosperity and power.

Robert Hall, one of the brightest ornaments of the Baptist Church, by universal assent occupies one of the most prominent positions among men of genius and of culture, his works having given him renown throughout Christendom. The celebrated Dr. Parr, who was his intimate friend, says of him,—

“Mr. Hall has, like Jeremy Taylor, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet, the subtlety of a schoolman, the profoundness of a philosopher, and the piety of a saint.”

Robert Hall was born at Arnsby, Leicestershire, England, in August, 1764. His father, who was a Baptist clergyman of considerable note, early perceived a wonderful degree of intellectual development in his child. He said to a friend,—

“Robert at nine years of age fully comprehended the reasoning in the profoundly argumentative treatises of Edward on the Will and the Affections.”

When fifteen years old, Robert became a student in the Baptist College at Bristol; and in his eighteenth year entered King’s College, Aberdeen. Here he became acquainted with Sir James Mackintosh, which acquaintance ripened into a life-long friendship.

Upon leaving college, Mr. Hall commenced preaching, and with a power which immediately drew around him, and elicited the admiration of, crowds of the most intellectual of hearers. His biographer says of him,—

“Mr. Hall’s voice is feeble, but very distinct: as he proceeds, it trembles under his energy. The plainest and least-labored of his discourses are not without delicate imagery and the most felicitous turns of expression. He expatiates on the prophecies with a kindred spirit, often conducting his audience to the top of the ‘Delectable Mountains,’ where they can see from afar the gates of the Eternal City. He seems at home among the marvellous revelations of St. John; and, while he dwells upon them, he leads his hearer breathless through ever-varying scenes of mystery far more glorious and surprising than the wildest of Oriental fables. He stops where they most desire he should proceed, where he has just disclosed the dawnings of the inmost glory to their enraptured minds, and leaves them full of imaginations of things not made with hands, of joys too ravishing for similes.”

Robert Hall’s life was devoid of adventure, having been spent almost exclusively in the study and the pulpit. His conversational powers were of the highest order; and, in every social circle, crowds gathered around him, charmed by the unstudied eloquence which flowed from his lips. He was an indefatigable student; and, though one of the most profound thinkers, was one of the most childlike of men in unaffected simplicity of character. His pre-eminence in the pulpit was universally acknowledged, and his extraordinary powers ever crowded his church with the most distinguished auditors. During his life he issued several pamphlets, which obtained celebrity throughout all Christendom. A sermon which he preached upon Modern Infidelity was published in repeated editions, and “sent a thrill to every village and hamlet of Great Britain.” Its arguments were so unanswerable, that no serious attempt was made to reply to them.

“Whoever,” Dugald Stewart wrote, “wishes to see the English language in its perfection, must read the writings of that great divine, Robert Hall. He combines the beauties of Johnson, Addison, and Burke, without their imperfections.”

A very severe chronic disease of the spine caused him throughout his whole life severe suffering. Once or twice the disease so ascended to the brain, that the mind lost its balance; and Mr. Hall was compelled for a short time to withdraw from his customary labors.

The works of this distinguished man are still read with admiration, and will be ever regarded as among the highest productions of the human intellect. He died, universally beloved and lamented, on the 21st of February, 1831, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.

There is, perhaps, no divine of the Church of England whose name is more prominent in ecclesiastical annals, or more widely known throughout the Christian world, than that of William Paley. He was born in Peterborough, England, in July, 1743. His father, who was curate of a parish, carefully instructed him in childhood, and, when his son was sixteen years of age, entered him at Christ College, in Cambridge. The superior intellect even then developed by the young man is evidenced by the remark of his father, “He has by far the clearest head I ever met with.”

At the university he applied himself very diligently to his studies, and rapidly