Basic HTML Version
116
The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
it. The course of the clergy in denouncing them from the pulpit,
aroused the elements of darkness, ignorance, and iniquity. Again
and again did John Wesley escape death by a miracle of God’s mercy.
When the rage of the mob was excited against him, and there seemed
no way of escape, an angel in human form came to his side, the mob
fell back, and the servant of Christ passed in safety from the place
of danger.
The Methodists of those early days—people as well as
preachers—endured ridicule and persecution, alike from church-
members and from the openly irreligious who were inflamed by their
misrepresentations. They were arraigned before courts of justice—
such only in name, for justice had no place in the courts of that time.
Often they suffered violence from their persecutors. Mobs went
from house to house, destroying furniture and goods, plundering
whatever they chose, and brutally abusing men, women, and chil-
[178]
dren. In some instances, public notices were posted, calling upon
those who desired to assist in breaking the windows and robbing
the houses of the Methodists to assemble at a given time and place.
These open violations of all law, human and divine, were allowed
to pass without a reprimand. A systematic persecution was carried
on against a people whose only fault was that of seeking to turn the
feet of sinners from the path of destruction to the path of holiness.
Said John Wesley, referring to the charges against himself and
his associates: “Some allege that the doctrines of these men are
false, erroneous, and enthusiastic; that they are new and unheard-of
till of late; that they are Quakerism, fanaticism, popery. This whole
pretense has been already cut up by the roots, it having been shown
at large that every branch of this doctrine is the plain doctrine of
Scripture interpreted by our own church. Therefore it cannot be
false or erroneous, provided the Scripture be true.” “Others allege
that their doctrines are too strict; they make the way to Heaven too
narrow; and this is in truth the original objection, as it was almost the
only one for some time, and is secretly at the bottom of a thousand
more which appear in various forms. But do they make the way to
Heaven any narrower than our Lord and his apostles made it? Is
their doctrine stricter than that of the Bible? Consider only a few
plain texts: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and