The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-06

!
ant, in these words: You have consumed
my Cyprus wine, the only wine that 1 can
take. GU are a wicked fellow, and l
snail have you punished on board a man
of-war" Seeing Mr.. Wesley he remarked
in different tone: Il beg YOUR pardon
sir, but l was so exasperated that 1 could
not restrain my indignation. Indeed l
never forgive a wrong"
In that case, general" responded Yves
ley calmly, you ought to be quite sure
that you never commit a sim
Another incident of the VOYAGE occurred
when they were nine days sail from the
American coast, and when the ship en-
countered typical West Indian hurri-
cane. This storm so frightened the ships
company that all were almost delirious
with fear John Wesley observed a strik-
ing contrast IN the behavior of the Moray
lans, who were serene and self-possessed,
singing psalms of praise amidst the wild
est commotion, to that of the English who
were on board. Wesley asked the Mo
raVlans how it was 'Why,"was the ready
reply even our women and children are
not afraid to die This was a new phase
OIL religion to the learned Fellow of Lincoln
college. 1t instantly set him to thinking
Nhen the storm passed over, the Sym
monds' cast anchor in the Savannah river,
near Cockspur Island, and one or two days
aIerWard the Voyagers reached the town
in safety, on Feb s. 1853.
on the 7th of March following John
wesley preached the first Methodist SER
mon ever preached on this continent not
1ar from the site of the present Christ
church savannah, of which he SUISSE
quently was the third rector 1t was adj
dressed to mixed assemblage. His con-
sregation hardly exceeded 400 persons in
Guiding children and adults reinforced.
however, by 100 or more of the neighboring
Indians, Wesley was then in the prime of
ms staiWart manhood. He was not ro-
pust IN his physique, but shapely in his
inquire, measuring five feet ten inches in
stature, and with Roman physiog-
nomy ana bearing not unbeitting a Ro-
man senator He was, at this time. about
"a years old, and as he stood before his
strange congregation he was an Impress
i've figure. He discussed in a most elo-
quent manner the principles of Christian
charity as argued by st. Pau. in the thir-
teenth chapter of First Corinthians DR..
Nunes, Spanish physician and a Jew.
was an interested listener to the sermon
lie was frequently known in after life to
say that this chapter of St. Paurs, as ex-
pounded by Mr.. Wesley, deserved to be
written in letters of gold
Wesley made powerful appeal in this
first sermon. Many of his audience were
in tears. While he was not so impetuous
in his delivery as in after years when he
Numbered the anathemas of the violated
law against the sinner and the ungodlv
the great preacher and reformer If he
was more scholastic in style than in after
years, the ferVor and force of his appeals
were none the less felt by his hearers.
Especially was this strikingly true when
in the course of his discourse he adyerted
to the death of his father who for forty
years or more had been the incumbent of
the EpWorth rectory. This venerable man,
was asked not long before his death:
Are the consultations of God small with
your mo, no, nor he exclaimed, with
uplifted hands, land then" continued
Wesley, calling all that were near him
by their names, the dying patriarch said:
Think of heaven, talk of heaven; al. time
is lost when we are not thinking of
heayen!" This was spoken by Wesley in
a tremulous voice, and his new parishon-
ers at Savannah were for the instant al
most swept off their feet by a tidal wave
of religious enthusiasm. Tradition has it
that several Indians who were present be-
came so greatly excited not only by Mr..
Wesley's impassioned oratory-though they
did not understand word he said. but by
his gestures-that one old warrior ner-
vously clutched his tomahawk, fearing an
outbreak in the strangely moved audience.
When John Wesley first planted his foot
on the soil of Georgia the colony was in
the swaddling bands of its infancy; 1t re-
quired nearly 200 years to develop it into
the broad proportions of the Empire State
mate of Wesley, no doubt carefully pre-
pared, there were then within the limits
of Christ church parish, Savannah, not far
from 100 parishioners, excluding from this
estimate highly respectable Jewish set
Element, from which descended not few
of the best citizens of that city This it
must be understood, does not embrace the
Moravians of bingham county, the Salz-
burgers of Ebenezer, and the Germans of
Highgate, all of whom We're Germans by
descent and in their form of religion
Near by were several hundreds of In
dams, indiherently known as Mucogees,
or Creeks. On St. Simons Island there
was likewise a resident English popula-
ton of slightly less than 100 souls. At Da-
rien on the Altamaha river, there was a
nucleus of a ilourishing SeetcH colony, to
which additions were made after the lapse
of a few years, these consisting of a full
regiment of Scotch Highlanders, composed
exclusively of the liegemen of the down
fallen Stuart dynasty, who had followed
the standards of their clans at Preston
pans and Culoden in the earlier part of
the eighteenth century.
The next two or three weeks after his
inaugural discourse, Wesley, keeping in
view a special mission work among the
Indian tribes, began to hold public con-
ferences with Tomo-Chi-Chi and such of
his sub-chiefs as desired to be religiously
Instructed. Tomo-Chi-Chi was undoubt-
eddy somewhat of a philosopher. but he
had a dislike for the Spanish and French
missionaries with whom he had been
brought into personal contact. Besides,
he had seen so much of the drunkenness
and general debauchery of the English
settlers that he was not a promising sub
ject for the teaching and training of Yves
ley himself He seems to have had a
higher regard for Wesley than for the
other religious instructors that he had
met, but still in his conversations with
the English rector he showed himself i'm
practicable and in a degre refractory
This was seen when on one occasion Yves
ley and Tomo-Chi-Chi dined with Gen
OgethorDe. The meal ended. the clergy
man asked the aged Indian what he
thought he was made for. He that Is
above" replied the Indian, knows what
He made us for. We know nothing We
are in the dark. But white men know
much, and yet white men build great
houses as II they were TO live forever But
white men cannot live forever. In a little
time white men viii be dust as well as
myself.