The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-06-08
Recent Publications.

The third and last volume of Tyerman's
Life and Times of John Wesley is now pub
lished. The readers of the first and second
volumes will be as eager for the sequel of the
grand old mans life as if his biography were
serial story. Wesley, who at fifty was
thought to be at the point of death, lived to
see his eighty-ninth year, and preached up to
within seven days of his death. Till within a
year and half of that event his health, ac-
tivity and usefulness had not been seriously
impaired by disease. During the fifty years
of his itinerant life he Travelled more than a
quarter of million miles. He himself at
tributed the continuance of his health and
strength so long beyond the period ordinarily
allotted to man, to rising at four in the morn
ing, preaching in the open air at five, and
riding three or four thousand miles on horse
back every year. The founder of Methodism
was by nature a genuine king of men. HIS
influence over his followers was something
miraculous. He was in many respects far in
advance of his age In the volume before
us is the letter in which he made use
Of the language so often quoted dur
ing the anti-slavery contest in this
country, "Slavery is the sum of all villain
ies." Among his last letters is one to VIII
be-force, encouraging him to 60 on in what
then seemed the mad enterprise of abolish
cause wss not less remarkable. A hundred
years sgoi he was as advanced" temper
ance advocate as our most radical "Maine
law" men. He decidedly objected at that
time to the! governments raising a revenue
from distilled liquors and thus authorizing
their manufacture, though that source Of rev.
enue was as important to Great Britain as
the whisky tax now is to the United States.
But the best of the'great reformer was his
practical benevolence. Thirty pounds a year
was all he received for his preaching, but his
income from the sale of his publications was
quite large He spent few pounds for
clothes annually, and all the rest he gave to
the poor. Some years his charities reached
the extraordinary sum of five thousand dol
lars! He died almost penniless.
Wesley's biographer is a Methodist, and an
| enthusiastic admirer OF the founder of that
sect. But he by no means indulges in indis-
| criminate eulogy. 1t is reassuring to find him
frankly acknowledging Wesley's weaknesses
and errors which were no less remarkable
| than his extraordinary virtues. Indeed, we
ought not to expect of reformeIs that degree
| of ideal purity and wisdom which we are so
often disappointed in not finding in them. If
| in addition to the average virtue of mankind
| they possess a singular enthusiasm for the
welfare of the race and devote their lives to
good works, it is enough. Wesley's faults
were perhaps as few as those of any reform
er-certainly less than those of Luther. II
is curious and perplexing to find him taking
sides against this country during the Revolu-
tionary war, especially as he had written a
letter to Lord North, then the British Prem
ier, just previous to the outbreak, in which he
expressed the opinion that the Americans
had reason to complain, and that they only
demanded their rights in very reasonable
| manner. When he subsequently took Dr.
Johnson's Taxation No Tyranny bodily,
only prefacing it with few words, and, with
out giving the smallest hint OF its origin, pub
lished it as ga Calm Address to Our Ameri-
can Colonies, by John Wesley, A. NJ" is it
any wonder that he was fiercely assailed not
oniy as renegade but as plagiarist? And,
| bv the way, controversy in IT'S was carried
on in much more vigorous and unreserved
manner than even religious controversies are
now. DIR. Lanahan and DIR. Carpenter, who
enlivened the proceedings of the Methodist
| General Conference last week, by their un-
seemly wrangling, might learn the elements
of personal abuse from Toplady's pamphlets
against the founder of Methodism Wesley
became great friend to Lord North, and de-
Tended the measures of the government
against Wilkes. But so far as Americans are
concerned, they no more remember Wesleys
Tory proclivities than they do Count Rum
fords or DR.. Johnson's or Dickens Martin
Chuzzle,cit.
Another curious circumstance about Wes-
ley was the tendency to superstition which
chung to him through life So tenacious was
he of his belief in witchcraft that he said to