Wilmington journal., 1872-09-06


credited. Mr.. Tyerman, always on the
4ui rice for such things, eagerly siezes or
every little incident Of this nature and
draws attention to it. For this and other
, reasons, which lieed not be stated here
we should rot be surprised if much of the
profound veneration i'll which Wesley is
held by many Of his followers would
diminish i'll proportion as these volumes
are read and circHlai ed. Nor should we
look upon euch a result us a calamity,
either to Wesley or MethodiSm. The ten
deucy to IL an-worship is always great, and
the danger is still greater. Whenever,
therefore, blind, uureaSoninS veneratiOn
Tor even so great aud good man as John
| Wesley has the effect of converting the
! people called Methodisls into spiritual vas
sails, to whom his every word is lava
phenomenon l0t unfrequently Witnessed
the sooner this covert assumption Of his
IlfalllDIity Is demonstrated 10 be no less
: Sroundle5s than absurd, the better il is for
! all parties concerned. With al Weslcy's
scholarly erudtion, logical acutcness, hon
! esty OF purpose and purity of intention,
IyeIman shows plainly enough that his
judgment Was At times warped by preju-
dice, biased by passions and msicd by those
In hOm lie bad IppOeed undue confidence
especially by that honest but bigOted
/ churclnIau, his brother b rles. Free
! from guile hiluSelf aud sharing somew hat
largely with his great contemporaries, DIR.
johnson aud Blackstone, in t. at credulity
Which the prevailing Skeptiti.m bad, by
. reaction, produced i'll Il few of the best in
tellects Of his age-hypocrites often on
his confidence and enthusiasts el list ed his
| syHpathicS. Instances of this kind might
lie cited oh Hbjtun1 from the volumes be-
/ )rC us: and they all bat enforce and con-
trm the practical wisdom of the Divine
rrecepf, "Call no man your father upon the
earth"
Whiia, however, He admire the frank
ness and candor of Mr. Tyerman in ''stat-
ing facts like these, just as he fluids tlem,"
we cannOt always commend his judgment
en discretion in stating other facts with
ou' accompanying explanations. Few
PERSONS have SUCH strong faith in John
Wesley as lie, and Jew er still are so con-
vel lsant nth the listory of bis evenful
life. circumstances which may, therefore,
seem too transparent to his mird, 70 need
any explicatinn, may appear very opaque
to others; and we doubt not that the at
tempt to reconcile some of the occurrences
which he relates, with the lofty character
ascribed to Wesley i'll ''pllzzle" aud '.per-
pick man. persons who are, by 40 means,
pradisposed to judge unrh llitably tf him
We Will here cite but two of the numerous
noticed IN .he Nui h b.. e rs. The first
Eay be found in vol. ist, page 1872, and
relates 10 What So ms to be self contra
dlctDry st4teulent Uf Wesley, in regard to
his c"n religious eNpe ,iGuce, and one
Wilch our autll, declares 10 he s'eXtremelV
puZzlirg." Here Wcs!ry is represented as
denying i'll the most explicit and positive
terms that !.e himself was a christian,
nearly one year after his conversion! But
instead OF attempting to explain Weslty's
meaning, Iyerman carelessly remarks
1.-The reader must form bis own opinion
and grapple with the difficulties thus pre-
sented as he best can" After such hasty
disposal of the case, the reader viii doubt
less be surprised to discover 10y reading
ten pages further on, that when Tyerman
recurs tn The same subject again he seems
to have strangely forgotten that there were
any '' difficulties" whatever involved in the
aforesaid statement, because, says he,
wesley, taught by the Herrnhuth Nora
V1ans, cOnfounded it" (the doctrine of en-
tire sanctifcatiOn) "toG 3 time, with what
he called the witness OF the sprit-the full
assurance of faith" Now this is a most
bungling and unsatisfactory way of treat |
ing such grave subject. Why did he not |
give this obvious explanation of that appa-
rent selt-contradictiOn at once, without .
"puZzling" himself and "'perpleXing" his |
readers with imaginary "ditficulties ~
The second is taken from vol. B, page
449, where he thinks Wesley guilty Of
''great Inconsistency in calling himself a
member OF the church of England, and
affirms that ''tO reconcile Wesley's practice
and profession in this matter, during the
last seven years of his eyentful life, is sim
ply impossible" In this instance however,
though ne charita6ly suggests that "great
allowance must be made for Wesley, 'he
does not trouble himself in the least degree
to show why or wherefore such E'alloWance
must be made" Had he even attempted
to do SO he might possibly have discovered
the necessity of reVOking his judgment, as
IN the other case, and owned that the
practice and profession" in question are
so obviously self-consistent that they re-
4ltlre but little ingenuity 10 '.'recoEcilc''
them. III NJ. Iyer1ndn were not in
avoWGd sympathy with Wesley and Me-
JhOdism such representations as the above
would, OF course, be taken c,u,e grnRn saiis
and no great injury could probably result
from them, but the known relations Ie-
wien partges are such that tiers are
very few OF bis readers who will not accept
his damaging Judgments AS the most |
lenient tlIat charity itself could render, and
fewer still who possess either the tine or
the talent which revision or rectiticatiou
OF them would demand.
While, therefore, we cordially join in tie
Acknowledgment that Methodslu through
out the world owes Mr.. Uycrman a heavy
debt Of gratitude for furnishing lis such a
full a'td exact synopsis Of all the leading
events in the lif3 Of Wesley desderAttlm
hCretOfou,--we are bound to add that as a
complete pOrtraitnre of his character, the
volumes before us are essentially dotcc-
tire. Indeed, we could not expect il to he
OF berwise after reading the following ex-
traordinary etatcmelt i'll his preface g
have moi, +" he says, 9 attempted what may
be called the phiiosOphy of WeSley's life
[ leave that to Others My one
object has been to collect, ctIlate, and re-
gister unvarnshed facts" Now, with all
due Difference To Mr.. Tyerman's judg-
ment, We venture to affirm that no greater
mistake than this could he C1luInitted by
one who undertakes to write the biography .
of such a man as John Wesley. Every
man Of marx has, and of necessity must
have, his own special plans, parpoa'., and
aims--his great salient motives and regu-
latiVe principles of conduct. These form /
the basis of his character and det- fmine +
the style of its superstructure. They i'm
part moral cast and color to everything
he does. They furnish the rationale OF
many things in his history otherwise in /.
explicable, and give unity aid c, he ence +
to the whole series OF events controlled 10y
his agency. IL short, they constitute the (
true philosophy of his life--tn the light #
which @:aiy ~ outward phenomena cin lie
rightly n'' srs'"o | or duly appreciated.
Bat oD>inrl> .,e .hase postutata are, they
az. {, t't~-i, i.-"~ed by Mr. Ty,fman,
tiiou-,h t.c. o..I = out as the fixed stars,
to which all dinringuished biographers ever
look for guidance in the Interpretation Of