The Story of John Wesley Part 5

Then Tomo Chachi and his squaw went back to their tepee.

A few months after, Mr. Wesley had a long talk with another tribe of Indians, a very wicked tribe called the Chicasaws; but they would not allow him to preach to them. They said: "We don't want to be Christians, and we won't hear about Christ." So Mr. Wesley had to leave them and go back disappointed to Savannah.

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CHAPTER XII.

Proud children.--Edie.--Boys in Georgia.--John and Charles Wesley in the wrong.--Signal failure.--Disappointment.--Return to England.--Mr.

Wesley finds out something on the voyage home.--An acrostic.

I WONDER if my readers know any boys or girls who sneer and look down upon their school companions because they are not so well dressed as themselves? It is a cruel, unkind, un-Christ-like thing to do.

I remember seeing a little girl, and it was in a Sunday School too, who had on a new summer frock and a new summer hat; and oh! Edie did think she looked nice. She kept smoothing her frock down and looking at it, and then tossing her head. By her side sat a sweet-faced little girl about a year younger than Edie. Annie's dress was of print and quite plainly made, but very clean and tidy. After admiring herself a little while, Edie turned to Annie and thinking, I suppose, that she might be wearing a pinafore, and have a frock underneath, she rudely lifted it up, and finding it really was her dress, she turned away with a very ugly, disgusted look on her face, and said, scornfully "What a frock!"

Proud, thoughtless boys and girls never know the hurts they give, and the harm they do.

The boys in Georgia were no better than some boys in England. At a school where one of the Methodists taught there were some poor boys who wore neither shoes nor stockings, and their companions who were better off taunted them and made their lives miserable. Their teacher did not know what to do, and asked Mr. Wesley for advice. "I'll tell you what we'll do," he said; "we'll change schools"--Mr. Wesley taught a school too--"and I'll see if I can cure them."

So the two gentlemen changed schools, and when the boys came the next morning they found they had a new teacher, and this new teacher, to their astonishment, wore neither shoes nor stockings. You can imagine how the boys stared; but Mr. Wesley said nothing, just kept them to their lessons. This went on for a week, and at the end of that time the boys were cured of their pride and vanity.

Though Mr. John and Mr. Charles Wesley were so good, they were not perfect. They said and did many unwise things, and only saw their mistake when it was too late. One thing was they expected the people to lead the same strict lives they did, and to believe everything they believed. This, of course, the people of Georgia would not do, they thought their ways were just as good as Mr. Wesley's, and I dare say in some things they were. Instead of trying to persuade them and explaining why one way was better than another, Mr. Wesley told them they _must_ do this, and they mustn't do that, until at last they got to dislike him very much. One woman got so angry that she knocked him down.

I am sure you will all feel very sorry when you read this, for Mr.

Wesley was working very hard amongst them, and thought he was doing what was right. Mr. Charles did not get on any better at Frederica, where he had gone to work and preach. Like his brother, he was very strict and expected too much from the people. He tried and tried, not seeing where he was to blame, and at last wearied and disappointed he returned to England.

After he had gone, Mr. John took his place at Frederica, hoping to get on better than he had done at Savannah. It was of no use; he stayed for twelve weeks, but things only seemed to get worse and worse. At last he had to give up and go back to Savannah. Things, however, were no better there, and before long he too began to see that his mission had been a failure, and he returned to England a sadder and a wiser man.

In spite of all their mistakes Mr. John and his brother must have done some good in Georgia, for the missionary who went after them wrote and said: "Mr. Wesley has done much good here, his name is very dear to many of the people." It must have made the brothers glad to read this, for it is hard when you have been doing what you thought was right, and then find it was all wrong.

On his return voyage to England Mr. Wesley had time to think about all the things that happened in Georgia. He was feeling dreadfully disappointed and discouraged; he had given up everything at home on purpose to do good to the people out there. He had meant to convert the Indians and comfort and help the Christian exiles, and he was coming back not having done either. Poor Mr. Wesley! And the worst of it was, the more he thought about it all, the more he began to see that the fault was his own.

There was another thing he discovered about himself on that voyage home.

They encountered a fearful storm, when every one expected to be drowned.

During those awful hours Mr. Wesley found out, almost to his own surprise, that the very thought of death was a terror to him. He knew then that there was something wrong, for no Christian ought to fear to die. So Mr. Wesley went down on his knees and told G.o.d how wrong he had been, that he had thought too much of his own opinions and trusted too much in himself. He asked G.o.d to give him more faith, more peace, more love.

He was always glad afterwards that he had gone to Georgia, and thanked G.o.d for taking him into that strange land, for his failure there had humbled him and shown him his weakness and his failings.

It is a grand thing when we get to know ourselves. Let us be always on the look-out for our own faults, and when we see them, fight them.

I would like to close this chapter with an acrostic I once heard on the word "Faith." It is a thing little folks, yes, and big folks often find hard to understand, perhaps this may help you.

What is Faith?

F ull A ssurance (confidence, having no doubt) I n T rusting H im (Jesus).

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CHAPTER XIII.

George Whitefield, the "boy parson."--The Wesleys back in England.--Long walks.--Preaching by the way-side.--A talk in a stable.--Sermon in Manchester.--Mr. Charles in London.--Wants something he has not got.--Gets it.--Mr. John wants it too.--A top place in the cla.s.s.

YOU remember the Holy Club which the Methodists started at Oxford? Well, one of the youngest members was named George Whitefield; he was a pupil of Mr. John Wesley's, and when he left Oxford he became a preacher.

While the two Wesleys were in Georgia, he carried on their work in England. He had learnt to love Jesus very dearly, had felt how wicked and sinful he was, and had gone to the Saviour and told Him all, asking Him to "Create in him a clean heart, and to renew within him a right spirit." Then he was so happy in knowing he was forgiven, that he wanted every one else to be happy and forgiven too. He was so young when he commenced to preach that every one called him the "boy parson;" but he talked so earnestly and kindly to the people that crowds everywhere flocked to hear him.

When he heard that the two Wesleys were leaving Georgia he determined to go and take their place, and see what he could do for the poor exiles.

Before he left England he preached a good-bye sermon, and told the people that he was going this long and dangerous voyage, and perhaps they might never see his face again. When they heard this, the children and the grown-up people, rich and poor, burst into tears, they loved him so much. But as this book is to be about Mr. John Wesley, we must not follow Mr. Whitefield across the Atlantic. Try to remember his name though, for he and the Wesleys were life-long friends, and you will hear about him again further on.

When Mr. John and Mr. Charles got back to England they took up George Whitefield's work, going from town to town telling the people about Jesus Christ. As there were no railways they had to walk a great deal, and they used to speak to the people they met on the roads and in the villages through which they pa.s.sed. Once, when Mr. Wesley and a friend were on their way to Manchester, they stayed one night in an inn at Stafford. Before they went to bed, Mr. Wesley asked the mistress of the house if they might have family prayer. She was quite willing, and so all the servants were called in. Next morning, after breakfast, Mr.

Wesley had a talk with them all again, and even went into the stables and spoke to the men there about their sins and about the love of Jesus Christ.

He preached in Manchester the next Sunday, and this was his text: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor. v. 17). He explained to them that when any one begins to love Jesus, and tries to copy His life, they grow more and more like what He was. Then everything becomes different; the things they loved to do before cease to be a pleasure to them, and the places they liked to go to they no longer care to visit; they are "_new creatures_ in Christ Jesus."

The next morning (Monday) Mr. Wesley, and the friend who was with him, left Manchester and went on to Knutsford. Here, too, the people listened attentively, while they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. They visited other towns, and then Mr. Wesley returned to Oxford.

He had not been long there when he heard that his brother Charles was very ill in London, and went at once to see him. Charles Wesley had been living and working there with some German Christians, or Moravians, as they were called, and before long he found that these people had something in their lives that he did not possess. Like the Germans he met in Georgia, their religion gave them peace and joy on week-days as well as on Sundays.

When he was ill, one of these Moravians, named Peter Bohler, came to see him. During the little talk they had, the visitor said:

"What makes you hope you are saved?"

"Because I have done my best to serve G.o.d," answered Mr. Charles.

You see, he was trusting in all the good deeds he had done, and not on Jesus Christ's suffering and death for him.

Mr. Bohler shook his head, and did not say any more then. But he left Charles Wesley longing for the something he had not got.

When he was a little better, he was carried to the house of a poor working-man named Bray. He was not clever, indeed, he hardly knew how to read, but he was a happy believer in Jesus; and he explained to Mr.

Charles that _doing_ was not enough, that we must believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, and that it is only through Him that we can pray to G.o.d, and only by His death that we can hope to go to heaven.

Then a poor woman came in, and she made him understand better than any one; and at last Mr. Charles saw where he had been in the wrong, and instead of trusting in his own goodness and in all the kind things he had done, he just gave up his faith in these, and trusted alone in the dying love of his Saviour, and ours.

I expect all my readers have cla.s.ses in the schools they go to. Some of you are at the top of your cla.s.s, some of you are in the middle, and some of you are--well--near the bottom. I think this is very much the way in Christ's school, the only difference is that in your cla.s.s at school there can only be _one_ at the top. In Christ's school there can be any number at the top. There are a great number of Christians who are only half-way up in the cla.s.s, and I am afraid there are a still greater number at the bottom. That is a place none of us like to be in at school; then don't let us be content to keep that place in Christ's school; let us all seek and obtain top places.