The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 2 (of 3)Tyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Methodism; Wesley, John, 1703-1791
All the inhabitants of the village, with many others, were present at
the morning five o’clock preaching, including a poor woman, brought
to bed ten days before, and who walked seven miles, with her child
in her arms, to have it baptized by Wesley. At Newtown, he addressed
the largest congregation he had seen since he came to Ireland. At
Belfast, he preached in the market-house; and at Carrickfergus in the
courthouse. At Larn, his pulpit was a table, and his congregation
nearly all the inhabitants of the town, both rich and poor. At Lurgan,
he was taken to see the house which an eminent scholar had recently
erected for himself,—“part mud, part brick, part stone, and part
bones and wood; with four windows, but without glass in any; of two
storeys, but without a staircase; on the floor three rooms,—one three
square, the second with five sides, and the third with more.” “I give,”
says Wesley, “a particular description of this wonderful edifice, to
illustrate the truth—There is no folly too great even for a man of
sense, if he resolves to follow his own imagination.”
At Coot Hill, he had “a tolerably serious congregation in the open
street.” At Granard, he preached in the barrack yard. At Edgeworthtown,
his congregation was genteel; but at Longford, where he preached in the
yard of the great inn, “the rudest, surliest, wildest people” he had
seen in Ireland. At Newport, all the protestants of the town attended.
At Hollymount, the churchyard served him as a preaching place. At
Minulla, he found the papists unchanged,—retaining the same bitterness
and thirst for blood as ever, and as ready to cut the throats of
protestants as they were in the former century. He left the place at
four o’clock in the morning, riding a horse without either bridle or
saddle. At Ahaskra, four fifths of his congregation were papists. At
Athlone, a few eggs and stones were thrown. At Coolylough, he held
the quarterly meeting. At Limerick, he met Thomas Walsh, “alive, and
but just alive,” three of the best physicians attending him, and all
agreeing that, “by violent straining of his voice, added to frequent
colds, he had contracted a pulmonary consumption, which was now in the
last stage, and consequently beyond the reach of any human help.” Here
Wesley held his Irish conference, fourteen preachers being present.
At Clare, his congregation in the street consisted of “many poor
papists and rich protestants.” At Ennis, “nine in ten” of those who
came to hear him were papists. In an island near Limerick, he preached
to thousands seated on the grass, row above row. Here he overstrained
himself, and next morning began spitting blood, and, for a week, was
laid aside. Rest, however, and “a brimstone plaster, and a linctus of
roasted lemon and honey,” so far restored him, that, in a week, he
resumed his ministry at Cork, and interred James Massiot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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