For some time after the fire the family had to be scattered: some were taken in by one neighbor, and some by another, and when at last a new house was built, and they were all at home again, Mrs. Wesley found that her children had learned many rude ways and bad habits, from being with those who could not train them as carefully as she had done. They had gone back, too, in their lessons, and it was long before they were all as obedient and well-behaved as they had been before. How thankful children should be, to whom God has given Christian parents, who watch over their souls as those who must give account!
In course of time the parsonage was built up again. This time it was a brick house, with many more rooms than before. There were a kitchen, parlor, dining-room, study, nursery, and other rooms. One was called the “Matted Chamber,” another the “Paper Chamber,” which means, I suppose, that the walls were papered, which was not so common in those days as now. Outside the house Mr. Wesley planted fruit trees to be trained against the wall, and mulberry trees, cherry trees, and pear trees in the garden. He planted walnut trees in the croft, or field, and in time all looked pleasant and comfortable, and the children got back to their lessons and were becoming orderly and well-behaved as they had been before. Their mother took great pains to make them speak civilly and pleasantly to everybody. Rude answers were always punished, and they were taught to ask the servants for anything they wanted, in a kind, polite manner. One rule which she made for them was, that the time they spent in amusement, should never be longer than the time spent in reading the Bible and prayer.
You can well believe that the people of Epworth were a great trouble to Mr. Wesley. Besides setting fire to the parsonage, they had done a great many other things to injure and annoy him. Once, when Mrs. Wesley was very ill, they had beaten drums and fired guns all night long under her window on purpose to keep her awake. One night they had stabbed the three cows upon which the children depended for their milk. Another time they set fire to the flax in the field, and another time they nearly chopped off the leg of the house-dog. Any of you who have a dog you are fond of, will I am sure feel very angry, at the thought of such horrible cruelty. There was one person, however, who felt far more sorrow than anger, with regard to these poor brutal people—this person was Mrs. Wesley. It happened when little John was eight years old that his father went to London, where he remained several months. The curate, Mr. Inman, was left to take charge of the parish. Mr. Inman, however, contented himself with reading the prayers, and preaching a bad sermon on the Sunday mornings.
During the rest of the Lord’s day and on the six week days, all went on as if the people had no souls and there were no God. This made Mrs. Wesley very unhappy. She felt that her children and servants were under her care, and that she must give an account to God, as to whether she had done all she could, to lead them to know Him. She therefore determined to spend a part of each Sunday in reading aloud the best sermons she could find, and then all joined in singing some psalms and in prayer. The little servant boy told his parents of this, and they asked if they might come too; then other neighbors asked leave to come; and soon there were thirty or forty meeting every Sunday at the parsonage. The new parsonage being so much larger than the old one, it could hold a good many people. About this time it so happened that Emilia, looking over her father’s books, found an account of the missionaries who had lately been sent out to the heathen by Frederick IV, King of Denmark. The account of these missions is a wonderful story, which I hope you will one day read for yourselves. Mrs. Wesley told Emilia to read it aloud to her. She wrote to her husband, telling him how delighted she had been with this remarkable history. It was not common then, as it is now, to send missionaries to the heathen, and the hardships they had to undergo were very great. Mrs. Wesley says: “Their labors refreshed my soul beyond measure, and I could not forbear spending a good part of that evening in praising and adoring God for inspiring those good men with such an ardent zeal for His glory. For several days I could think or speak of little else.” She then goes on to say that she felt that even a woman must do what she can for the Lord Jesus, and that she would begin by praying more for the people of Epworth, who had been such a trouble to them all. She would speak more to them about their souls, and would begin with her own children. She therefore set apart a certain time every evening to talk alone with each child. On Monday she had Molly; on Tuesday, Hetty; on Wednesday, Nancy; on Thursday, Jacky; on Friday, Patty; on Saturday, Charles; and as there was only one day left, Emilia and Sukey had to come together on Sunday. She also talked, as she had opportunity, to the neighbors who came in to the reading on Sunday afternoons. She spoke to them so earnestly and lovingly, that they became really awakened about their souls. They spoke, too, to others, and so many people became anxious to know the way to be saved, that as many as 200 would come to the parsonage on Sundays, and many more would have come had there been room. They no longer wished to ill-treat Mrs. Wesley and her children, but seemed quite changed from wild beasts, into quiet, well-behaved people.
Mrs. Wesley at first tried to persuade them to go away after the sermon, as she did not think it was a fit thing for a woman to pray in public. She wished only her children and servants to remain for the prayers. The people, however, would not go, and therefore she prayed before them all, for none amongst them were able to pray aloud. It is sad to remember that the best sermons that Mrs. Wesley could find to read, were not such as would tell these poor people, how sin is put away once and forever by the precious blood of Christ. Mrs. Wesley did not herself know this; she had not yet seen, that he that believes in Jesus has full forgiveness and everlasting life. She was hoping that someday her sins would be forgiven, but she did not then know that the blessed work which saves sinners is done and finished, and that God Himself has no more to do. He is satisfied with the work which His Son has done, and He has full and free forgiveness for all who will believe in Him, the moment they look away from themselves to Christ. But as far as Mrs. Wesley knew the truth, she was faithful to her trust in making it known to others. And God has said, “to him that hath, more shall be given, and he shall have abundance.” She little thought that it would one day be through her little boy Jacky, that the light and peace of the gospel of Christ, would be brought to shine into her soul. I suppose Jacky was always by her side on those Sunday afternoons, but he was not old enough to understand much of those dull, old-fashioned sermons.
When Mr. Wesley heard of these meetings he was not quite pleased: it was something so new and strange. After a while he got letters from two or three of the Epworth people, who were, as Mrs. Wesley says, the worst in the parish. They complained of these meetings, which stopped the games and merry-making they had been used to have on Sundays. Then came a letter from Mr. Inman, the curate, warning Mr. Wesley that a conventicle was held in his house, for which he might be punished. Perhaps you do not know what that long word means. To explain it to you we must go back to the year 1664, when Charles II was king of England. In that year a wicked law was made, called the Conventicle Act. A conventicle meant a religious meeting, where people read the Bible, prayed, or preached without using the prayer-book. The law made in 1664 was this: If any person above sixteen years old were present at any such meeting where there were five or more persons besides the family, he should for the first offense be imprisoned three months, and pay £5; the second time he was to be imprisoned six months, and pay £10; the third time he was to be sent as a slave, to the American sugar or cotton plantations for seven years, or pay £100; and should he come back or escape, he should be hanged as soon as he was caught. The sheriffs and justices were to stop any such meetings, and take those who were there into custody. People who allowed such meetings in their houses or barns should be punished in like manner, whether they were present or not. Married women, if present, were to be imprisoned for a year, even for the first offense, unless their husbands paid £40 to redeem them. Any who would tell of such meetings were well paid.
God’s people, then, met together in secret places and at midnight, but there was generally someone to betray them. This terrible law was not thought sufficiently severe, and therefore in 1670 it was further ordered, that any justice who failed to break up such a meeting, should pay £5 in each case.
It is true there were meetings in dissenting chapels for worship and preaching, but this was only as the Parliament gave a license or leave for such meetings, in buildings set apart for the purpose. Members of the Church of England must not attend these meetings, and neither they nor dissenters might meet together in their own houses or elsewhere, to read the Bible or pray. They might meet in crowds to drink, gamble, or amuse themselves, but to speak of God, or to worship Him when they met together was a crime.
Strange to say, it is only within the last twenty years that this law has been set aside, though few people were aware that such a law had been made, and therefore it was often broken, happily for those who did so. In every case where the honor of God is not concerned, we should be extremely careful to obey the laws of our country, and it is only when a law is made which would force us to disobey God, that we should disregard it. In such a case we must say, like Peter, “we ought to obey God rather than men.” It was thus with Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and many other good men, who knew it was better to be burnt for disobeying the wicked laws of Queen Mary, than to disobey God by keeping them. Let us be thankful that we live in days when we can worship and serve God, without disobeying any of those rulers whom He has set over us.
You now understand why Mr. Wesley was alarmed at hearing of the conventicle held in his house. He might, as he well knew, not only be blamed for it, but taken before a magistrate and punished. It has happened in the lifetime of those amongst us who are not yet old people, that an English nobleman, amongst others, was brought before the county magistrate on two occasions and fined, for the crime of meeting for prayer and for the reading of God’s Word in his own house, when more than twenty persons were present, including his own household. In the days of our forefathers, 170 years ago, Christian people were even afraid to give thanks before meals, if five or more visitors should be there. It was therefore quite true that Mrs. Wesley ran the risk of bringing a severe punishment upon herself and her husband, by these Sunday meetings; and very soon she got a letter from Mr. Wesley, telling her that her conduct was thought very singular. She replied: “As to its looking particular” (particular in those days meant odd or strange), “I grant it does; and so does almost everything that may any way advance the glory of God or the salvation of souls, if it be performed out of a pulpit or in the way of common conversation, because in our corrupt age, the utmost care and diligence have been used, to banish all discourse of God out of society.”
She went on to say, that if she or her children spent the Sunday evenings in idle visiting, nobody would complain, but that if any should blame her for keeping the Lord’s day holy, it did not signify. “For my part,” she said, “I have long since shook hands with the world,” (she meant “have said good-bye to it”), “and I heartily wish I had never given them more reason to speak against me.”
She ends by saying that if her husband thought fit to put an end to these meetings, he must not say that he desired her to leave them off; “for that,” she said, “will not satisfy my conscience; but send me your positive command, in such full and express terms, as may absolve me from all guilt and punishment, for neglecting this opportunity of doing good, when you and I shall appear before the great and awful tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It seems that Mr. Wesley did not dare, after receiving this answer, to complain any more of the meetings, and they went on as usual till he came back to Epworth. You see from this history that little John’s mother was, as far as she had light, a true servant of God, and that she would teach her children to care nothing for being blamed or thought odd and foolish by men, if they were doing what God desired.
Only let us be careful not to give any reason to others to blame us by being really foolish, or by being disobedient to the lawful commands of those set over us. Christians sometimes think they are suffering for Christ’s sake, when it is really on account of some foolishness and ill-conduct on their own part. I can tell you of nothing more that happened at Epworth before little John was sent to school in London, which took place when he was eleven years old, in the same year in which George the First came from Germany to be King of England.