Nothing more is needed. In the foregoing testimonies the writer heartily concurs. Mr Wesley’s behaviour, as a parish clergyman, was in all respects exemplary excepting one; we mean his enforcement of canonical laws concerning penance, the neglect of which, we are bound to say, would have been more virtuous than the observance.
Remarks have sometimes been made to the effect that Mr Wesley’s labours were honoured with but small success; and, in support of this, the testimony of his son John is quoted, but quoted only in part. The entire entry in his journal is as follows:—“1742. Sunday, June 13.—I preached in Epworth churchyard to a vast multitude, gathered together from all parts. I continued among them for near three hours, and yet we scarce knew how to part. Oh, let none think his labour of love is lost because the fruit does not immediately appear! Near forty years did my father labour here, but he saw little fruit of all his labour. I took some pains among this people too, and my strength also seemed spent in vain; but now the fruit appeared. There were scarce any in the town on whom either my father or I had taken any pains formerly, but the seed, sown so long since, now sprung up, bringing forth repentance and remission of sins.”[[360]]
If this testimony of John Wesley means what it says, it means that the labours of his father at Epworth, so far from being barren, were crowned with great results; only the results were more visible after his death than they were before.
We have already seen that Mr Wesley outlived the brutal hostility with which he was met during the first years of his residence at Epworth, and that his dozen communicants had increased to above a hundred. But besides all this, we have another testimony by his son John, contained in a letter written to the venerable father a few months only before his death. He says—“For many years you have diligently fed the flock committed to your care with the sincere milk of the Word. Many of them the Great Shepherd has, by your hand, delivered from the hand of the Destroyer, some of whom have already entered into peace, and some remain unto this day. For myself, I doubt not but when your warfare is accomplished you shall come to your grave, not with sorrow, but as a ripe shock of corn, full of years and victories.”[[361]]
Such a declaration sufficiently refutes the vague, floating idea respecting Samuel Wesley’s want of ministerial success; but had such testimony not existed, and had the idea mentioned been strictly true, it would have been enough of honour, for even so good a man as the Epworth rector, to be the author of some of the best books in the English language, and to be the father of the greatest evangelist of modern times, and of the best sacred bard that has flourished since the days when the poetic lyre was made to vibrate music so sweetly celestial, under the wondrous inspired touch of David the son of Jesse.
APPENDIX.
A, page 83.
TITLES OF THE POEMS IN MR WESLEY’S “MAGGOTS.”
The Titles, in brief, are as follows:—
- 1. A Maggot.
- 2. Two Soldiers Killing one another for a Groat.
- 3. A Tame Snake in a Box of Bran.
- 4. The Grunting of a Hog.
- 5. To my Gingerbread Mistress.
- 6. The Bear-faced Lady.
- 7. A Pair of Breeches.
- 8. A Tobacco Pipe.
- 9. A Cow’s Tail.
- 10. The Liar.
- 11. A Hat broke at Cudgels.
- 12. A Covetous Old Fellow.
- 13. A Supper of a —— Duck.
- 14. To the Laud of a Shock Bitch.
- 15. Elegy on the Death of Poor Spot.
- 16. A Box like an Egg.
- 17. The Beggar and Poet.
- 18. Plures aluit Aristoteles quam Alexander.
- 19. A King turned Thresher.
- 20. A Discourteous Damsel.
- 21. A Cheese.
- 22. A Journey.
- 23. The Leather Bottle.
- 24. Out of Lucian’s true History.
Then follow the Dialogues, viz.:—