t, my young
Oldham readers, was the opening of Manchester St. Chapel on Good Friday,
1790, when Mr. Wesley was nearly ninety years old.
At Hull, Birmingham, Wednesbury, Chester, Manchester, Liverpool, all
places where the Methodists had been most cruelly treated, Mr. Wesley
and his followers were now most kindly welcomed. You remember how Mr.
Wesley and his brother had been shut out of the churches, very few
clergymen allowing them to preach in their pulpits. This, too, was all
changed.
Those of you who live in Hull will like to know that John Wesley, when
he was eighty-three, was invited by the vicar to preach in your
beautiful High Church. If any of you have not been inside--but surely
all my Hull readers have--pay it a visit, and just fancy you see that
bright-eyed, silver-haired old man, with a voice that had lost little of
the strength of youth, preaching to the crowds that thronged the
hallowed place. If those old grey walls could speak, we might know John
Wesley's very words. He preached again at night, and though so old, was
unwearied with his work. He went on to Beverley that same evening, and
the next day travelled seventy-six miles, preached at Malton,
Pocklington, and Swinefleet, and went to bed without feeling the least
bit tired. Wonderful John Wesley! God-blest John Wesley!
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Beverley friends.--Copy of a letter John Wesley
wrote to them.--Mr. Wesley's last visit to
Beverley.--What took place in the red-roofed
inn.--A race.--A lost ten minutes.
YOU, who live in Beverley, will be glad to hear that Mr. Wesley did not
pass by your dear little town. Indeed, there is a house in Norwood where
he most probably stayed, and certainly visited; the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Barton. You shall see an exact copy of a letter he wrote to these
friends. It has never been printed before, so you are the first of the
public to see it. It is addressed thus:
"MRS. JANE BARTON,
"IN NORWOOD, BEVERLEY,
"YORKSHIRE."
And this is the letter:
[Illustration: Letter]
London
Nov. 13, 1778
My Dear Sister
I am glad Sister Crosby has been at Beverly, &
that you had an Opportunity of hearing her. She is
u
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