CHAPTER XIV.
Methodist rules.—Pulpits closed against Mr. Wesley.—A visit to Germany.—A walk in Holland.—Christian David, the German carpenter.—The Fellow of Lincoln College takes lessons in a cottage.
DARE say many of my readers go to Wesleyan Chapels, and understand some of the Methodist rules. Most of these rules were made by the two Mr. Wesleys and their friends more than one hundred and fifty years ago, and they have been kept by their followers ever since. I want to tell you about a few of them.
The people who attended the Methodist meetings were divided into little bands or companies, no band to have fewer than five persons in it, and none more than ten. They were to meet every week, and each one in turn was to tell the rest what troubles and temptations they had had, and how God, through Jesus Christ, had helped them since the last meeting.
Every Wednesday evening, at eight o'clock, all the bands joined together in one large meeting, which began and ended with hymns and prayer. There were many other rules, some of which I will tell you later on, others you can read about when you are older.
All this time you must remember that Mr. Wesley was a church clergyman. He loved the Church of England very dearly, though there were a great many things in it with which he did not agree.
Wherever he preached he told the people just what he believed, and as very few clergymen thought as he did, they did not like him speaking his opinions so freely. At last, first one and then another said he should never preach in their churches again. Yet the message Mr. Wesley gave to the people, was the very same message that Christ spoke long before on the shores of Galilee.
Mr. Wesley still longed to understand his Bible better, and to learn more of Jesus Christ, so he determined to go and visit the Moravians at a place called Herrnhuth in Germany, and see if he could get some help from them. So one June day, he said good-bye to his mother, and with eight of his friends set off. One of these friends was an old member of the Holy Club at Oxford. On their way to Herrnhuth, they had to pass through Holland. This is what Mr. Wesley says about a walk they had in that country:
I never saw such a beautiful road. Walnut trees grow in rows on each side, so that it is like walking in a gentleman's garden. We were surprised to find that in this country the people at the inns will not always take in travellers who ask for food and bed. They refused to receive us at several inns. At one of the towns we were asked to go and see their church, and when we went in we took off our hats in reverence, as we do in England, but the people were not pleased, they said: "You must not do so, it is not the custom in this country."
After a long, long journey through Germany, the little party at last reached Herrnhuth.
Mr. Wesley had only been a few days there, when he wrote to his brother Samuel: "God has given me my wish, I am with those who follow Christ in all things, and who walk as He walked."
I must just tell you about one of these Moravians, because he helped Mr. Wesley more than any of the others. His name was Christian David. He was only an ignorant working-man, and when not preaching was always to be found working at his carpenter's bench. But David was Christian in life as well as in name; he "walked with God," and whether he preached and prayed, or worked with chisel and plane, he did all "in the name of the Lord Jesus." He was never tired of telling people about the Saviour he loved, and trying to get them to love Him too. He was a man who often made mistakes, but as some one has said, "the man who never makes mistakes never makes anything;" and Christian David was always ready to own his faults when they were pointed out to him.
You remember to what a high position Mr. Wesley had risen at Oxford, and how clever he was? Yet Christian David knew more than he did about Jesus Christ and His love; and the Fellow of Lincoln College was not too proud to go and sit in a cottage and be taught by this humble carpenter, who so closely followed the Holy Carpenter of Nazareth.
