CHAPTER II

A

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS

LTHOUGH a few distinguished men, of

whom Wesley was the chief, were leaders during the Revival of the eighteenth century, it will, of course, always be borne in mind that the general results would have fallen far short of what they actually were if there had not been available a band of earnest itinerant preachers. The enthusiasm of these men, their Scripture knowledge, and, above all, their supreme faith in the adequacy of the Gospel to meet the needs of man and of the times, enabled them to do service which may be said to abide until this day, notwithstanding that the majority were, in a very literal sense, what Wesley calls 'unlettered men.' They were worthy of their leaders and of the cause; and brave as they were, they well knew that those above them did not ask that perils and inconvenience should be risked which they were themselves not willing to share. The rank and file caught the spirit of their General.

In the good providence of God, obstacles to the progress of the cause were one by one over

come.

At first field-preaching seemed to promise to become a very serious difficulty; but when once well begun, objections disappeared like mist before the morning sun. Then, at first, it did not seem to be in accordance with Christian order to allow unordained men to preach the Gospel; and no one knows what would have happened if the humble preachers had asked Wesley's advice instead of making a beginning on their own account. On discovering what was taking place, Wesley was somewhat disconcerted; but providentially, as it may well seem to us, at that time he still had a mother who was able to give him some sound advice on the subject. That sagacious woman saw that a number of extra preachers would be needed in connection with the great movement which was going forward, and Wesley soon saw that his mother was right. For him to have persevered in his objections to the practice of the travelling preachers would have been to handicap himself in his great mission. It always happens so in any great evangelical movement. When the late C. H. Spurgeon commenced his great work in London, he found that here and there young men converts commenced to preach; and in order to control them, and to prevent their running wild, he founded a college. Wesley also realised that the preachers whom he once feared might tend to promote confusion were allies to whom the work would have to be largely indebted. It hardly concerns us to decide the question as to who was the first Methodist preacher

to take to the work at the outset of the Revival; but we may notice some of those who stand out more prominently in a long and honourable succession.

Among these worthies, John Nelson, 1707-1774, strikes one as being a man sui genesis. A stonemason by trade, he possessed great physical strength, while in his unconverted state his evil passions appear to have been correspondingly strong. He was a Yorkshireman, who seemed to be specially fitted to carry the Gospel to those of his own order in the North. His conversion was a long and painful process, reminding one of a man who, after floundering for a time in the Slough of Despond, at last got out only to fall in again. He mentions 'my poor sin-sick soul' in a way which shows how much he suffered more forcibly than any description. He sought relief by going to church, or by going' to hear Dissenters of all denominations, but to no purpose.' He even tried the Roman Catholics; 'but was soon surfeited with their way of worship.' He would even have followed the Quakers, if by so doing he could have ensured peace of mind. At last, when he had tried all but the Jews,' he returned to the Established Church, apparently thinking that he must at least keep within Christian boundaries.

At that time Moorfields, just outside the City, was becoming, as it were, one of the chief battlefields of the Revival. When Whitefield came there to dispute the ground with the enemy, Nelson stood in the crowd, and listened to the

great orator 'as a man who could play well on an instrument'; but though he grew in love with the preacher, and would have knocked down anyone who had ventured to molest him, he found no relief. He evidently lapsed into a highly nervous state; he seemed to be maintaining an unequal struggle with invisible foes by day, and when sleep came to him at all by night, he would dream that he was 'falling into some horrible place,' or was actually fighting with the devil-'I was like a wandering bird cast out of the nest.'

Then the scene changes; and this time it is not Whitefield, but 'Mr. John Wesley' who comes 'to preach his first sermon in Moorfields,' and a new day of promise seemed to dawn for John Nelson, who vividly depicts the preacher :

'As soon as he got upon the stand, he stroked back his hair, and turned his face towards where I stood, and I thought fixed his eyes upon me. His countenance struck such an awful dread upon me, before I heard him speak, that it made my heart beat like the pendulum of a clock; and when he did speak, I thought his whole discourse was aimed at me. When he had done, I said, "This man can tell the secrets of my heart; he hath not left me there; for he hath showed the remedy, even the blood of Jesus."'

But the great change did not occur there and then; Nelson fell into gross sins, and still had many sore conflicts. In regard to his yielding to temptations to the grossest lewdness, he is a poor contrast to many others under similar conditions.