The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-22

His soul disdains on earth to dwell; He only sojourns here. This happiness In part Is mine. Already saved from low design, From every creature love, Blest with the scurn of finite good, My soul is frightened of its load, And seeks the things above. "The things eternal I pursue, A happiness beyond the view Of those that basely pant For things by nature felt and seen,
 Their honors wealth and pleasures mean, I neither have nor want.
 "No foot of land do possess, No cottage in this wilderness: A poor. wayfaring man.
 I lodge awhile in tents below,
 Or gladly wander to and fro, Till my Canaan gain. Nothing on earth call my own;
 stranger to the world unknown,
 all their goods despise;
 trample on their whole delight,
 And seek city out of sight
 A city in the skies"
 Lifted Above Worldliness.
 This unearthly spirit of unfaltering
 consecra ton seemed to lift him above the
 effects of toll and care, and to make him
 more abundant in labors than all his con-
 temporaries. Indeed, few of any age
 have equalled him in this particular. In
 an age when there were no railways and
 the public highways were of the worst
 sort, he rode above 4,O0o miles a year on
 horseback. and when he died 1t was esti-
 mated that he had travelled more than
 225.oOO miles and had been in the saddle
 hA1t ,,,t.z
 lived. Bonaparte and Caesar not except ed. Besides preaching over 40OO0 times
 he wrote books and tracts for his peo- pie, and in every way sought to relieve their distress, and to elevate their lives To enumerate his literary works would tax the memory of the most enthusiastic and diligent bibliophie Counting hls abridgements and compilations, more than 200 volumes proceeded from his pro- life pen including grammars. dictiona- ries, histories. biographies commentaries scientific compendiums and a book of physic for the poor and physIcianless classes of his followers. Besides all this he organized schools, built chapels, es- tablished orphanages, erected aims houses and instituted "loan society," to help deserving people who were in mon etary difficulties. And all these. mani- fold labors will appear the more wonder full when it is remembered that at 51 he was apparently at deaths door, suffering frequent hemorrhages from the lungs ana himself being so sure that his end was near as to write his own epitaph. Truly this apostolic man in an unapostollc age might have appropriated most justly the words ot St. Paul and have said of him. self in proof of his ministry, T have been in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers. in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen in perils in the city, ip perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea- in perils among false brethren; in wearincss and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. beside those things that are without, that which cometh up- on me daily. the care of all the church. l es.'
 For three weeks before his death, so | devoted was he stall to work as daily the | outward man perished, he sang constant y at family worship the weli-known | ines: O. that without a lingering groan
 l may the welcome word receive; My body with my charge lay down,
 And cease at once t0 work and live"
 A Desire Fulfilled.
 And this deep desire of his heart was | almost literally fulfilled. Less than ten | lays elapsed between his death and his | asst sermon, which was preached in the l lining hall of a gentleman who, being be- | reaved by the death of hls wife, sent for | Wesley, whom he ha4 not previously | xnown, to comfort his sorrowing heart. | Thus on a mission of coincidence to a | stranger the great preach er closed his ministry within a week of | his death. The poor country people of | he neighborhood plodded through the | nire to hear the discourse. Tho common people heard him gladly to the end.
 The day before he /died. in invinciols ouoyancy of spirit. he sat up and sang o the surprise of attending friends the ines:
 I'll praise my Maker while I've breath, And when my voice Is lost in death, Praise shall employ my nobler powersi Ny days of praise shall ne'er be past While life and thoughtNand being last )r immortality endures."
 So sang he like a joyous bird at the cry gate of Paradise.
 His last audible prayer was his favor te form for thanksgiving after meals We thank Thee, O Lord. for these and Il Thy mercies Bless the church and he king. and grant us truth and peacef trough Jesus Christ our Lord forever nd ever"
 When Cromwell lay dying he said, "The ord will be with his people" Wesley's ying exclamation was far nobler by so luch as 1t expressed a more vivid sense f the Divine presence: The best of all God IS with us."
 Is 1t any wonder that a life so filled 'ith the Divine Spirit should have pro- uced religious revolution which saved he common people, arrested infdelity in he higher classes, averted social disor- CTS and unified for All time in the bonds the holiest sympathies the English peaktng peoples of the globe? Is it trange that after two centuries have assed men of all shades of religious be-