The Oxford Methodists : $b Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with biographical notices of others — John Shaqi
The Oxford Methodists : $b Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with biographical notices of othersTyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The Oxford Methodists : $b Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with biographical notices of others
“Whether we may not give to them who appear to want it most, a
little money, or clothes, or physic?
“Whether we may not supply as many as are serious enough to
read, with a Bible and a Whole Duty of Man?
“Whether we may not, as we have opportunity, explain and
enforce these upon them, especially with respect to public and
private prayer, and the blessed sacrament?”[7]
Such, at the end of 1730, was the plan of benevolent action drawn up by
the Oxford Methodists. Who can find fault with it? Wesley tells us, that
they met with none who answered these questions in the negative, and that
several helped them with quarterly subscriptions.[8]
Thus encouraged, the two Wesleys, Kirkham, and Morgan, cheerily pursued
their way, “in spite of the ridicule which increased fast upon them
during the winter.” The men of wit, in Christ Church, called them
Sacramentarians. Their allies, at Merton, styled them The Holy Club.
Others stigmatized them as The Godly Club; and others the Enthusiasts,
or the Reforming Club; but ridicule, though far from pleasant, failed to
check them in their laborious career.
In the summer of 1731, Mr. Morgan was disabled, by an attack of sickness,
and retired to Holt; but under the date of June 11th, Wesley writes:—
“The poor at the Castle, however, have still the Gospel
preached to them, and some of their temporal wants supplied,
our little fund rather increasing than diminishing. Nor have
we yet been forced to discharge any of the children which Mr.
Morgan left to our care: though I wish they too do not find the
want of him; I am sure some of their parents will.”[9]
Mr. Morgan’s affliction excited great interest in the Wesley family.
Matthew Wesley, an eminent physician in London, was on a visit to
his brother Samuel, the Rector of Epworth, and from thence went to
Scarborough. In a letter to her son John, dated, “Epworth, July 12,
1731,” Susannah Wesley wrote:—
“Before your uncle went to Scarborough, I informed him of what
I knew of Mr. Morgan’s case. When he came back, he told me he
had tried the spa at Scarborough, and could assure me that it
far exceeded all the other spas in Europe, for he had been at
them all, both in Germany and elsewhere; that, at Scarborough,
there were two springs, as he was informed, close together,
which flowed into one basin, the one a chalybeate, the other a
purgative water; and he did not believe there was the like in
any other part of the world. He said, ‘If that gentleman, you
told me of, could by any means be got thither, though his age
is the most dangerous time in life for his distemper, yet I am
of opinion those waters would cure him.’ I thought good to tell
you this, that you might, if you please, inform Mr. Morgan of
it.”
Poor Morgan’s work was ended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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