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happy art of representing that as a matter of principle, which was a matter of necessity; and, in the tastelessness of their chapels, the Methodists were only upon a level with the dissenters of every description. The *octagon, which, of all architectural forms, is the ugliest, he preferred to any other, and wished it to be used wherever the ground would permit: but it has not been generally followed. The directions were, that the windows should be sashes, opening downwards; that there should be no tubpulpits, and no backs to the seats; and that the men and women should sit apart. A few years before his death, the committee in London proposed to him that families should sit together, and that private pews might be erected; thus," he exclaims, "overthrowing, at one blow, the discipline which I have been establishing for fifty years!" But, upon further consideration, they yielded to his opinion.

He prided himself upon the singing in his meeting-houses: there was a talent in his family both for music and verse; and he availed himself, with great judgment, of both. A collection of hymns was published for the Society, some few of which were selected from various authors; some were his own composition; but far the greater part were by his brother Charles. Perhaps no poems have ever been so devoutly committed to memory as these, nor quoted so often upon a death-bed. The manner in which they were sung tended to impress them strong

"the

* His predilection for this form seems to have arisen from a sight of the Unitarian meeting-house at Norwich, " perhaps," he says, most elegant one in Europe. It is eight-square, built of the finest brick, with sixteen sash windows below, as many above, and eight sky-lights in the dome, which, indeed, are purely ornamental. The inside is finished in the highest taste, and is as clean as any nobleman's saloon. The communion-table is fine mahogany: the very latches of the pew doors are polished brass. How can it be thought that the old coarse Gospel should find admission here?" The sort of humility, which is implied in this sneer, is well charactered by Landor, when he calls it

"A tattered garb that pride wears when deform'd."

It is no wonder that he was struck by the cleanness of the chapel. This curious item occurs in the minutes of Conference for 1776. "Q. 23. Complaint is made that sluts spoil our houses. How can we prevent this? A. Let no known slut live in any of them."

VOL. II.

21

ly on the mind: the tune was made wholly subservient to the words, not the words to the tune.

The Romanists are indebted for their church-music to the Benedictines, an order to which all Europe is so deeply indebted for many things. Our fine cathedral service is derived from them; may it continue for ever! The psalmody of our churches was a popular innovation, during the first years of the Reformation; and the psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins were allowed to be sung, not enjoined. The practice, however, obtained; and having contributed, in no slight measure, to the religious revolution, when the passion wherein it originated was gone by, it became a mere interlude in the service, serving no other purpose than that of allowing a little breathing-time to the minister; and the manner in which this interval is filled, where there is no organ to supply the want of singers, or cover their defects, is too often irreverent and disgraceful. Aware of the great advantage to be derived from psalmody, and with an ear, as well as an understanding, alive to its abuse, Wesley made it an essential part of the devotional service in his chapels; and he triumphantly contrasted the practice of his people, in this respect, with that of the churches. "Their solemn addresses to God," said he, "are not interrupted either by the formal drawl of a parish-clerk, the screaming of boys, who bawl out what they neither feel nor understand, or the unseasonable and unmeaning impertinence of a voluntary† on the organ. When it is seasonable to sing praise to God, they do it with the spirit and the understanding also; not in the miserable, scandalous doggrel of Hopkins and Sternhold, but in psalms and hymns, which are both sense and poetry, such as would sooner provoke a critic to turn Christian, than a Christian to turn critic. What they sing is therefore a proper

"Those who have searched into the matter with the utmost care and curiosity," says Collier, (vol. ii. 326.) "could never discover any authority either from the crown or the convocation."

Yet Wesley has noticed, that he once found at church an uncommon blessing, when he least of all expected it ; namely, "while the organist was playing a voluntary."

continuation of the spiritual and reasonable service, being selected for that end; not by a poor hum-drum wretch, who can scarcely read what he drones out with such an air of importance, but by one who knows what he is about, and how to connect the preceding with the following part of the service. Nor does he take just two staves,' but more or less, as may best raise the soul to God; especially when sung in well-composed and well-adapted tunes; not by a handful of wild unawakened striplings, but by a whole serious congregation; and these not lolling at ease, or in the indecent posture of sitting, drawling out one word after another, but all standing before God, and praising him lustily, and with a good courage." He especially enjoined that the whole congregation should sing, that there should be no repetition of words, no dwelling upon disjointed syllables, and that they should not sing in parts, but with one heart and voice, in one simultaneous and uninterrupted feeling."

The preachers were forbidden to introduce any hymns of their own composing; in other respects, they had great latitude allowed them they might use the liturgy, if they pleased, or an abridgment of it, which Mr. Wesley had set forth; or they might discard it altogether, and substitute an extemporaneous service, according to their own taste and that of the congregation. Like the Jesuits, in this respect, they were to adapt themselves to all men. The service was not long: Wesley generally concluded it within the hour.

ner,

*This feeling, however, must have been disturbed in a strange man. if the preachers observed the directions of the first Conference, to guard against formality in singing, by often stopping short, and asking the people," Now, do you know what you said last? Did you speak no more than you felt? Did you sing it as unto the Lord, with the spirit and with the understanding also ?"

CHAPTER XXII.

METHODISM IN WALES AND IN SCOTLAND.

UPON Wesley's first journey into Wales, he thought that most of the inhabitants were indeed ripe for the Gospel. "I mean," says he, "if the expression appear strange, they are earnestly desirous of being instructed in it; and as utterly ignorant of it they are as any Creek or Cherokee Indian. I do not mean they are ignorant of the name of Christ: many of them can say both the Lord's Prayer and the Belief; nay, and some all the Catechism: but take them out of the road of what they have learned by rote, and they know no more (nine in ten of those with whom I conversed) either of Gospel salvation, or of that faith whereby alone we can be saved, than Chicali or Tomo Chachi." This opinion was formed during a journey through the most civilized part of South Wales. He was not deceived in judging that the Welsh were a people highly susceptible of such impressions as he designed to make; but he found himself disabled in his progress, by his ignorance of their language. "Oh," he exclaims, "what a heavy curse was the confusion of tongues, and how grievous are the effects of it. All the birds of the air, all the beasts of the field, understand the language of their own species; man only is a barbarian to man, unintelligible to his own brethren!" This difficulty was insuperable. He found, however, a few Welsh clergymen, who entered into his views with honest ardour, and an extravagance of a new kind grew up in their congregations. After the preaching was over, any one who pleased gave out a verse of a hymn; and this they sung over and over again, with all their might and main, thirty or forty times, till some of them worked themselves into a sort of drunkenness or madness: they were then violently agitated, and leaped up and down, in all manner of postures,

frequently for hours together. "I think," says Wesley, there needs no great penetration to understand this. They are honest, upright men, who really feel the love of God in their hearts; but they have little experience either of the ways of God or the devices of Satan; so he serves himself by their simplicity, in order to wear them out, and to bring a discredit on the work of God." This was the beginning of the *Jumpers.

Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, the remarkable men who made the secession from the Scotch church, invited Whitefield into Scotland, before his breach with Wesley. Accordingly, in the year 1741, he accepted the invitation; and thinking it proper that they should have the first-fruits of his ministry in that kingdom, preached his first sermon in the seceding meeting-house belonging to Ralph Erskine, at Dumferline. The room was thronged; and when he had named his text, the rustling which was made by the congregation opening their bibles all at once surprised him, who had never, till then, witnessed a similar practice. A few days afterwards he met the Associate Presbytery of the Seceders by their own desire; a set of grave venerable men. They soon proposed to form themselves into a presbytery, and were proceeding to choose a moderator, when Mr. Whitefield asked them for what purpose this was to be done: they made answer, it was to discourse and set him right about the matter of church government, and the solemn league and covenant. Upon this Mr. Whitefield observed, they might save themselves the trouble, for he had no scruples about it; and that settling church government, and preaching about the solemn league and covenant, was not his plan. And then he gave them some account of the history of his own mind, and the course of action in which he was engaged. This, however, was not satisfactory to the Associate Presbytery, though one of the synod

* "At seven in the morning," says Whitefield, "have I seen, perhaps ten thousand, from different parts, in the midst of a sermon, crying, Gogunniant bendyiti, ready to leap for joy." Had they been reprehended at that time, this extravagant folly might have been prevented.

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