The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-28
JOHN WESLEY BAREFooTED.
The Way That Great Teacher Re
buked Vanity and Pride in His
Sunday School.
BY MARGARET HOLMES BATES

/ d MAINdAhEsl I1OLMTlO IOA1 E<No.
A trifie more than $50 years since,
John Wesley, the founder of Meth
| odism, organized a Sunday school in
the town of Savannah, Ga. The rules
| of that Sunday school were different
from those that prevail Nowadays. The
children were compelled to attend eX-
cepting they were ill., A lack of fine
/ clothing was no excuse, and so it hap
/ pened that many of the boys and girls
presented themselves in their classes
without shoes or stockings. There are
many stories told of the mothers of
those days putting the children to bed
! early on Saturday nights and then
washing their clothes so as to be clean
on Sunday.
The colonists were, many of them,
too poor to buy shoes, or very much
clothing of any kind. But the climate
in Georgia is mild, and. it is no hard
ship to go scantily clad.
Human nature, however, as it
showed itself in John Wesley's Sun
day school was the same as it is now.
The children who could afford shoes
fell into the habit of saying disagree
able things to the barefooted boys and
girls. When Mr.. Wesley heard of this
from the parents of the children whose
2
sensitive, he pondered for awhile as
to what course it would be wisest to
pursue. First he thought he ought to
insist on all the children coming to the
Sunday school barefooted.
Then he considered lecturing the of
tenders soundly on the sin of vanity
He did neither, but the next Sunday
what was the surprise of teachers and
pupils TO see preacher Wesley walk
softly into their midst with bare, clean.
white feet
One can fancy that those who wore
shoes drew their feet far back under
the benches, and the barefooted ones
conscious of being in good company
sat very straight and looked satisfied
and happy
In the course of the session Mr.. Wes-
ley took occasion to speak of the fear
fully and wonderfully made human
body; and, placing his foot on a con-
Venlent chair, he gave a list of the
bones, tendonS and joints, with much
other anatomical knowledge. He told
the school that no human being could
possibly make piece of machinery as
marvellous as the human foot.
He remarked further that all the
clothing we bad to wear was a him
drance to our usefulness. He called at
tention to the clumsiness and ugliness
of shoes and stockings, as compared
with the natural foot, with it's white
and pink coloring, the blue veins show
ing through, and each toe protected by
beautiful, transparent SHE'LL that we
called nails.
Even the tan on the feet of children
or grown people who ran barefooted all
the time spoke of the goodness and
kindness of the creator. This tan was
made by the great sun and the soft,
odorOuS winds
The school thought this little lecture
very interesting, and it had much
better effect than a scolding. The chill
dren learned a lesson in physiology,
while being kindly rebuked for the folly
of vanity. 1t may be supposed, too,
that later in life these boys and girls,
when finding themselves at a disad-
vantage, tried to find out if there was
not some. compensation, even in what
seemed to be. real misfortunes.
In the regions where John Wesley
first labored there used to be many old
stories afioat, all proving how full of
resource he was, and what agreat, gen.
erous, simple-minded scholar and
Christian he was, too.