A very old school.—The first Methodist Chapel.—Well done, Bristol!—Empty purses.—How they were filled.—The penny-a-week rule.
OU remember the school at Kingswood, that the colliers collected the money for and started? Although it is one hundred and fifty years ago since it was opened, there has been a school at Kingswood ever since, and it is the very oldest thing we have in connection with Methodism.
If you will listen at chapel some time—in October I think it generally is—you will hear the minister say: "Collections will be taken to-day, morning and evening, on behalf of the Kingswood Schools." When you hear this will you just think, that the money you give is for the same school that was started by those good-hearted colliers near Bristol, more than one hundred and fifty years ago.
Now I must tell you of the very first Methodist Chapel that was ever built; for this, too, we have to thank the Bristol people. Having heard about Jesus Christ themselves, they were eager for their friends and neighbours to hear about Him too. They worked very hard, and were so much in earnest inviting people to come to the services, that at last the room where they held their meeting got far too small for all the people who wanted to come. It was only a tumble-down sort of place, and they were afraid the floor might give way or the roof fall in, and somebody be hurt.
At last they secured a piece of ground in what was called the Horse Fair in Bristol, and one bright May morning, in 1739, the first stone of the
FIRST METHODIST CHAPEL
was laid, amidst great shouting of praise and thanksgiving. I have called it a Chapel, but the Methodists called it a "Preaching House."
You may think what a great deal of money it took to carry on all the work that the Methodists were doing; sometimes their purses were very empty, and they wondered however they should get them filled again. But it was God's work they were doing, and of course the money always came.
Like most Methodist Chapels nowadays, the money to pay for the Bristol Preaching House was not got all at once; but a plan was adopted which, I think, was a very good one. Every Methodist in Bristol promised to pay a penny a week until all the money was raised; and as there were some hundreds of Methodists, the debt was soon paid off. Some of the people, however, were too poor to pay even this small amount, so it was arranged that the richer men should each call upon eleven poorer ones every week, and collect their pennies, and when they could not give them, the rich man was to make it up. This was the beginning of the weekly class money which your fathers and mothers, if they are Methodists, pay in their class-meetings to-day.