John Wesley

John Wesley. By C. E. Vulliamy. (Bles. 108. 6d.)

FROM his published writings and his Journal we already know Wesley more fully than it is possible to know most men.

But with every fresh revelation his character and achieve- ment become increasingly impressive. Mr. Telford, that veteran enthusiast, is warmly to be congratulated on having . finished the labour of twenty years. There have been various collections of Wesley's letters ; but whereas only 977 of them have previously been assembled, the edition now before us contains 2,670. These eight volumes,_ admirably produced, illustrated and annotated, not only throw a more intimate light on Wesley himself, but provide indispensable illumination for future historians of the period. They should finally dispel the tendency to think of the eighteenth century exclusively in terms of Vauxhall, Strawberry Hill, and " the Bath." The eighteenth century was no more homogeneous than any other era. Behind its static political surface it was a time not only of great economic expansion, but of new ideas and ideals. It was as much the age of Wesley as of Chesterfield. Walpole is usually regarded as the greatest letter-writer of his day, and, by _purely literary standards, Mr. Telford

does not dispute that ,claim. Dr. Johnson was probably right in

deeming leisure necessary for the full cultivation of the epistolatory art. Wesley's letters were mostly written for practical ends and at odd moments during the eighteen hours of intensive activity that formed his normal working day for sixty-five years. Like most truly busy men, however, Wesley found time for the amenities and courtesies of life, and while devoid of " frills," his letters by no means lack charm and grace.. Especially when addressing women, he would often give expression to the warmth and gentleness of heart that underlay the militant front which he was compelled to expose to the world during his great campaign. He under- stood women, and they understood him ; and it is the more bitter, on that account, to reflect that his own marriage was so tragic. In youth he was truly a Prince Charming, and his correspondence with Mrs. Pendarves (afterwards Mrs. Delany) shows how happily he might have filled the role of " elegant " gentleman if duty had not sum- moned him to sterner paths.

With what humility before God, but with what a just sense of his own human power and worth, did Wesley obey the heavenly vision ! His mere energy staggers one. Though small and not physically robust, he rode hundreds of miles annually on horseback along execrable roads, and would often preach in the open air, in all weathers and perhaps amid violent opposition, several times a day. But he was equal to the lowliest as well as the greatest tasks. He combined in unique degree the qualities of prophet and practical adminis- trator. He was not merely the architect of the Evangelical Revival ; he was also its carpenter. He supplied the vision and vitality ; and, with his remarkable patience and capacity for detail, he built up the actual organization of the Methodist Societies. He was indefatigable, again, in pastoral visitation and in helping his fellow workers throughout the land by letters sensitively adapted to their individual needs.

Wesley rekindled enthusiasm in an otherwise sterile age.

But he was no mere " revivalist." He recognized the place of

emotion in religion, but implacably opposed sentimentality. He always remained " John Wesley, A.M., sometime Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford." He was till the end a gentleman,

a scholar, and. a philosopher—and a rationalist philosopher at that. He -started with the assumption that " I am a spirit coming .from God and returning to God." But, that

hypothesis granted, he appealed as often to " reason " as any - 'writer in that age of reason. He was always testing his faith in the light of the best available knowledge and thought ; nor did he claim a monopoly of truth. He was as charitable in his judgements of others—save deliberate imposters—as he was stern in recognizing his own endearingly human lapses from the standards of conduct which he preached. For, unlike the Calvinists, with whom he was drawn into reluctant but un- flinching controversy, he despised a merely theological religion.

He judged the spirit by its fruits. His central aim was to make men citizens of the Celestial City. But he held that, being such, they must necessarily be better citizens of earth.

He was, in minor ways, a Puritan of his own age. But he was never, in essentials, " other-worldly." He believed that a healthy spirit needed a healthy mind and body. He was interested in science ; he held medical views far in advance of his time ; he promoted education, and founded our oldest surviving publishing house.

He was no politician in the conventional sense. But his letters to the Press and to leading public men show, how thoroughly he kept abreast with current affairs, and how shrewd was the judgement which he brought to play upon them from his intimate knowledge of the life of the community as, with eyes that missed nothing, he saw it during his travels.

He was no partisan, and was too practical to have much belief in "direct action." He knew that character in the long run shapes policy and events, and that the growth of public conscience and enlightenment is the surest method of progress. No man ever preached that faith with greater passion or success; and consequently no actual political reformer ever influenced so deeply for good the social life of the world. Wesley realized that by no political expedients, but only through the generous flowering of the heart of man, could Utopia be brought nearer. He was no professing communist, but, for all his aristocratic nature, he was a practising one. His writings earned him the vast sum, for his period, of £30,000. But, Spartan in habit, he spent nothing on himself ; and, after a life of unremitting toil, he died, in his eighty-eighth year, possessed of two silver spoons.

There have been ninny recent biographies of Wesley, and Mr. Vulliamy has written what is, perhaps, the best of them all. His book is full and balanced. He has admirably assembled the essential facts, and has set them against a vivid, yet well assimilated, background of the age. His style is particularly charming, rich in natural colour, but never strained ; and Wesley emerges vitally as not only the virile but the lovable man that he was. Mr. Vulliamy appreciates, moreover, that, while the Methodist Church is his most tangible monument, Wesley's influence has extended far beyond the confines of any institution. The stream of vital religion and social amelioration which he liberated has flowed, an ever-broadening stream, throughout the world ; and there is every sign that it