hearty boxes on the ears, and dragged him away like a calf.' His meekness and long-suffering were perhaps more apparent than at any other time when he was subjected to abuse in the street from individual opponents. On the other hand, gratitude was sometimes stimulated by more cheering adventures. On one occasion 'a whiteheaded old man,' encountered on the road in Cornwall, in 1782, asked, 'Sir, do you not know me?' 'No.' 'My father, my father, I am poor John Trembath!' He had been converted; he had prospered; he was happier than he had ever before been in his life!

A very notable characteristic of Wesley was seen in the sympathy he felt for all repentant sinners. While this was well known and appreciated by large numbers of the more humble sort, we find that others of a higher grade valued his services and wished him to visit them. Both the judicially murdered Dr. William Dodd, and Lord George Gordon of the No Popery Riots, came in for a share of attention. The former was found to be in a most desirable frame of mind; the nobleman was well acquainted with Scripture, while his apartment in the Tower was wellfurnished with other books.

Because Dr. Johnson's sight was too defective to enable him to see a landscape, many affected people may have thought it gave them a 'classical' air to ignore the beauties of nature. It was quite otherwise with Wesley, however; neither in writing nor speaking did he ever yield to the false taste of

the age. Then, as regards nature, in his constant travels how captivated he often was with a more than usually picturesque spot; but although he would sometimes come to a place where he would fain have stayed if earthly enjoyment had been his object, his best-loved retreat was Lewisham, although there were other quiet havens where he was equally welcome. In his later years he found a pleasantly situated house at Hinxworth in Hertfordshire, where leading off from the garden was 'a shady walk around the neighbouring meadows.' The prince of English itinerant preachers was wont to take notice of such desirable retreats, and what he said of one he really thought of many others: 'Gladly would I repose awhile here. But repose is not for me in this world.' For such a retreat as that of his friend's house at Lewisham he would contract strong affection, so that a final farewell would be quite a pathetic experience. Thus, in regard to the place just mentioned we find this record: 'We took one more walk round the garden and meadow, which he took so much pains to improve. Upwards of forty years this has been my place of retirement, when I could spare two or three days from London.'

One enviable characteristic was the ability to remain undisturbed in all kinds of experience. If he suffered loss through the death of friends or in temporal things, he recognised the fact that all things were ordered by God for the best. When false reports were afloat, at times reflecting on his

moral character, he could also preserve an even temperament, because even his reputation was in God's keeping. Thus it was commonly said that Wesley received a large pension for having defended the Government policy in the American War!

Wesley was able to correct the popular notion that nightingales would not live in cages; but it would have been more satisfactory had he protested against the cruelty of confining such songsters of the open air in barred prisons. When, however, any timely protest was made against certain usages or bad customs, they were sure to be outspoken. Thus, to Wesley, kneeling was the only allowable attitude at prayer; and after-service talk in church was a habit to be condemned. To him Methodism was the acme of Christian liberty; but when the members prospered in the world, the dangers of wealth had more terrors to their leader than the trials of adversity. Want of faith in the medical men of the time was also characteristic of Wesley; the failure of their modes of treatment were too apparent not to be noticed. Still it was evident that while he could correct mistakes or omissions in some directions, he was himself too credulous in others. In some so-called Medical Essays three persons were mentioned who had been cured of dropsy, and all by truly extraordinary means: 'One by drinking six quarts a day of cold water; the second by drinking two or three gallons of new cider; the third by drinking a gallon or two of small beer, and the same quantity of butter-milk!' One who believed in such a story might well ask,

'What are we doing in keeping dropsical persons from small drink?' It was 'the same as keeping persons in the small-pox from air.' In regard to the treatment of the last-named disease, Wesley showed more knowledge than the ordinary surgeon of his day; and in proof we need only quote one of his adventures in January 1773: 'I called where a child was dying of the small-pox, and rescued her from death and doctors, who were giving her saffron, etc., to drive them out! Can anyone be so ignorant still?' In another case a patient was advised not to take any more of the prescribed medicine. In one case, in which no medicine of any kind took effect, it was feared that the patient had 'sinned a sin unto death!'

The facts and incidents which have been referred to in some measure show John Wesley as he was by revealing his characteristics. We realise that he was a man before his time in all things save politics, otherwise, that emphatically he represents the best side of life in the eighteenth century. As an itinerant preacher of the Word, he may well rank as a chief apostle of England; for certainly no other Englishman either before or after him has done so extensive or comprehensive a work in organising and carrying out a plan for carrying the Gospel to the people of these three kingdoms.