The general's heart was touched, his conscience smitten. He stood
speechless before the youthful evangelist for a moment, and then threw
his bunch of keys on the floor before his poor, cringing servant,
saying, "There, villain, take my keys; and behave better in the future."
Wesley, it seems, had the moral courage, which probably no other man
possessed on that ship, to reprove General Oglethorpe to his face.
Soon after landing in Georgia, Wesley met Spangenberg, the Moravian
elder, and desired to know of him how he should prosecute his new
enterprise. The devout man of God saw clearly the need of the young
evangelist, and inquired of him: "Have you the witness within yourself?
Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a
child of God?" Wesley seemed surprised at such questions. Spangenberg
continued, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" Wesley replied, "I know him as
the Saviour of the world." "True," responded the Moravian elder, "but do
you know that he saves you?" Wesley replied, "I hope he has died to save
me." Spangenberg gravely added, "Do you know yourself?" Wesley answered,
"I do;" and here the interview ended.
[Illustration: WESLEY'S ARM-CHAIR.]
Charles Wesley was Oglethorpe's secretary, in place of Rev. Samuel
Quincy, a native of Massachusetts, who retired from the office,
desiring to return to England, where he had been educated. Ingham seems
to have attached himself to Charles Wesley, and devoted himself to the
children and the poor, and was the first to follow Charles to England.
Delamotte was impelled to go to Georgia from his love of John Wesley and
his desire to serve him in any capacity; and he never left him for a day
while Wesley remained in America. He was the last to leave the colony.
John Wesley was the sole minister of the colony, and stood next to
Oglethorpe himself.
The Georgia to which Wesley came was very different from the Georgia of
to-day. It had only a few English settlements, the most of the territory
being the home of savage Indians. These tribes being at war with each
other, all access to them was cut off. Not being able to extend their
mission among them, Wesley and his colaborers turned their attention to
the whites, hoping that God would before long open their way to preach
the Gospel to the Indians. In the prosecution of their mission they
practiced the most rigid austerities. They slept on the ground instead
of on beds, lived on bread and water, dispensing with all the luxuries
and most of the necessities of life. They were, in season and out of
season, everywhere urging the people to a holy life. Wesley set apart
three hours of each day for visiting the people at their homes,
choosing the midday hours when the people were kept indoors by the
scorching heat.
Charles Wesley and Mr. Ingham were at Frederica, where the people were
frank to declare that they liked nothing they did. Even Oglethorpe
himself had become the enemy of his secretary, and falsely accused him
of inciting a mutiny.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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