bade every one who visited him to supplicate for these; often repeating, 'An easy death!' "He told my mother, the week before he departed, that no fiend was permitted to approach him; and said to us all, 'I have a good hope!' "When we asked if he wanted anything, he frequently answered, 'Nothing but Christ!' "Some person observed, that the valley of the shadow of death was hard to be passed. 'Not with Christ,' replied he. "On March 27th, after a most uneasy night, he prayed, as in an agony, that he might not have many such nights. 'O my God,' said he, 'not many !' "It was with great difficulty he seemed to speak. About ten days before, on my brother Samuel's entering the room, he took hold of his hand, and pronounced, with a voice of who? who? faith, 'I shall bless God to all eternity, that ever you were born. I am persuaded I shall !'!! 66 My brother Charles also seemed much upon his mind. 'That dear boy!' said he, 'God bless him!' "He spoke less to me than to the rest, which has since given me some pain. However, he bade me trust in God, and never forsake Him; and then he assured me, that He never would forsake me. "The 28th my mother asked if he had anything to say Raising his eyes, he said, 'Only thanks! love! to us. blessing!' 66 Tuesday and Wednesday he was not entirely sensible. He slept much, without refreshment, and had the restlessness + of death for, I think, the whole week. "He was eager to depart; and if we moved him, or spoke to him, he answered, 'Let me die! let me die!' "A fortnight before he prayed, with many tears, for all his enemies, naming Miss Freeman. 'I beseech thee, O Lord, by thine agony and bloody sweat,' said he, 'that she may never feel the pangs of eternal death!' "When your kind letter to my brother came, (in which you affectionately tell him, that you will be a father to him and my brother Samuel,) I read it to our father. He will be kind to you,' said he, 'when I am gone. I am certain your uncle will be kind to all of you.' "The last morning, which was the 29th of March, being unable to speak, my mother entreated him to press her hand, if he knew her; which he feebly did. "His last words which I could hear were, 'Lord-my heart,-my God!' He then drew his breath short, and the last so gently, that we knew not exactly the moment in which his happy spirit fled. "His dear hand was in mine for five minutes before, and at the awful period of, his dissolution. "It had often been his desire that we should attend him to the grave; and though he did not mention it again (which he did the place of his burial) during his illness, we all mean to fulfil his wish; trusting we shall be supported, as we have been hitherto, in our afflicting situations. My dear, honoured uncle, my mother presents you her respectful love, and my brothers join with me in duty, begging your prayers for the widow and the fatherless! I am "Your afflicted and dutiful niece." This tender and interesting communication Mr. John Wesley answered from Manchester, on the 12th of April, as follows:-" My dear Sally,-I thank you for the account you have given me. It is full and satisfactory. You describe a very awful scene. The time, I doubt not, was prolonged, on purpose that it might make the deeper impression on those that otherwise might soon have forgotten it. What a difference does one moment make when the soul springs out of time into eternity! What an amazing change! What are all the pleasures, the business of this world, to a disembodied spirit? Let us therefore be ready; for the day is at hand! But the comfort is, it cannot part you long from, dear Sally, "Yours invariably.” By the same post Mr. Wesley sent the following letter to his sister-in-law:-"Dear Sister,-The account which Mr. Bradburn gave me of my brother's removal was very short and unsatisfactory. But the account which Sally has given me is such as it should be, particular and circumstantial. I doubt not but the few solemn words that he spoke, before he went hence, will prove a lasting blessing to all that heard them. "If I may take upon me to give you a little piece of advice, it is, to keep little company. You have a handsome occasion of contracting your acquaintance, and retaining only a small, select number, such as you can do good to, and receive good from. I am, my dear sister, "Your affectionate friend and brother." The funeral of this honoured Minister took place on the 5th of April. His remains, by his own desire, were interred in the churchyard of St. Mary-le-bone, near his own residence in Chesterfield-street. The pall was supported by eight Clergymen of the Church of England. In addition to his name and age, the following lines are inscribed upon his tomb-stone. They were written by himself on the death of one of his friends; but could not be more justly applied to any other person. With poverty of spirit blest, Rest, happy saint, in Jesus rest; A sinner saved, through grace forgiven, By thee forgot, are crown'd above; As a friendship of the most tender and confidential kind had through life subsisted between Mr. John and Charles Wesley, and they had been labourers together for half a century in carrying on a deep and extensive work of God, it was John's desire that their remains should rest together in the tomb which he had prepared in the ground connected with the chapel in the City-road; but this Charles declined, because the ground was not consecrated.* It was under the influence of this disappointment that Mr. John Wesley wrote the paper on the inutility of consecrating burying-grounds, which he inserted in his monthly Magazine. He thought that churches and chapels require no consecration but that which arises from the celebration of God's worship; and that "It is a pity but the remains of my brother had been deposited with mine. Certainly that ground is holy as any in England; and it contains a large quantity of bonny dead.""-Private letter of Mr. Wesley to the Rev. Peard Dickenson. Mr. Wesley here alludes to a dying saying of Haliburton: "I was just thinking on the pleasant spot of earth I shall get to lie in, beside Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Forrester, and Mr. Anderson. I shall come in as the little one among them, and I shall get my pleasant George in my hand; and O we shall be a knot of bonny dust!" Х burying-grounds are made sacred by the ashes of the pious dead, rather than by ceremonies of Popish origin, which the New Testament never mentions. Some persons have thought that the part which Mr. Charles Wesley took in opposition to his brother's ordinations, and against the administration of the sacraments by any man on whose head the hands of a Bishop had not been laid, must have rendered him an object of dislike and jealousy among the Methodist Preachers generally. But this is a mistake. Those who knew him best were convinced of his integrity and conscientiousness; and though they might dissent from his views of ecclesiastical order, they admired the man, whom they saw to be as generous as he was upright. Mr. Bradburn, for instance, whose opinions concerning episcopal ordination were very different from those of Mr. Charles Wesley, was honoured with the personal friendship of this eminent man, and in return regarded him with the profoundest respect and admiration; as is manifest from the following letter, which he addressed to Mr. Bardsley, a brother Preacher, a few days after Mr. Charles Wesley's interment :— "Mr. Charles Wesley died just as any one who knew him might have expected. I have had the pleasure and profit of his acquaintance and correspondence for years, and shall have a great loss of a true friend now that he is gone. I visited him often in his illness, and sat up with him all night, the last but one of his life. He had no disorder but old age. He had very little pain. His mind was as calm as a summer evening. He told me he should die in March, some months before. He often said, 'I have no particular desire to die; but I want the whole will of God to be done in and by me.' He always seemed fearful of suffering something dreadful before death. In this he was quite disappointed; for no one could pass easier out of time than he did. He said many things about the cause of God, and the Preachers, that did him much credit. He frequently said, 'I am a mere sinner, saved by the grace of God my Saviour.' This sort of language one would expect from most professors; but from one of his years and experience, it was truly pleasing. "His general character was such as at once adorned human nature and the Christian religion. He was candid, without cowardly weakness; and firm, without headstrong obstinacy. He was equally free from the cold indifference of lifeless formality, and the imaginary fire of enthusiastic wildness. He never was known to say anything in commendation of himself, and never was at a loss for something good to say of his divine Master. His soul was formed for friendship in affliction, and his words and letters were as a precious balm to those of a sorrowful spirit. He was courteous, without dissimulation; and honest, without vulgar roughness. He was truly a great scholar, without pedantic ostentation. He was a great Christian, without any pompous singularity; and a great Divine, without the least contempt for the meanest of his brethren. He died, or rather fell asleep, on Saturday, March 29th, 1788, in the eightieth year of his age. I preached his funeral sermon at West-street, and at the new chapel, on Sunday, April 6th, to an inconceivable concourse of people, of every description, from 2 Sam. iii. 38: 'A Prince and a great man is fallen this day in Israel.' I am not sure but I shall publish the sermon. Our chapels are hung in black around the pulpits, desks, &c., and all the people are in mourning." Such was the latter end of Mr. Charles Wesley, one of the most useful and gifted men of his age. Perhaps the state of extreme physical exhaustion in which he lay for several days, rendered him incapable of those rapturous joys with which some persons have been indulged in their last hours; but had they been vouchsafed to him, it is doubtful whether he would have made them known. The mystical views of religion which he received in early life, and which he again cherished after he had desisted from his itinerancy, led him rather to conceal than declare what the Lord had done for him. Yet thus much we learn, that he forgave all his enemies, and prayed for them. He renounced all confidence in himself, and in the spirit of a penitent trusted in Christ alone for acceptance and eternal life. Hence his conscience was at rest, and his heart was all gratitude, submission, and hope, longing after his heavenly home. Thus did he exemplify his own inimitable verses :— Walk with me through the dreadful shade; And, certified that thou art mine, My spirit, calm and undismay'd, I shall into thy hands resign. |