so that I walk much
slower than I used to do." He was now, for the first time for forty
years, obliged to give up his five o'clock morning sermons, and was only
able to preach twice a day. As the months went by, he grew weaker and
more infirm. Once, as the old man tottered up the pulpit stairs, the
whole congregation burst into tears.

On Valentine's Day, in 1790, he preached one of his last sermons to his
_little_ followers. He chose for his text: "Come, ye children, hearken
unto Me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord." The boys and girls
flocked from everywhere to hear him, and many who had never loved Jesus
before, heard Him speaking to them through His dear servant; and
answering the loving call, came, and from that day became Christ's
faithful little soldiers.

In the same year, when he was eighty-seven years old, he spent a
week-end in Manchester, and spoke his last words to his followers there.
He preached in the old chapel in Oldham Street on the Saturday night,
and the next day, which was Easter Sunday (April 4th), he assisted in
giving the Sacrament to sixteen hundred members, and preached both night
and morning without feeling tired.

A few months later he preached at Colchester; but he was so infirm that
a minister had to stand on each side of him, and hold him up. His voice
was feeble and low, and many of the congregation could not hear him; but
his calm, beautiful face, and long white hair formed a picture that the
children and grown-up people in Colchester never forgot.

It was in this same year, 1790, that he preached for the last time in
the open air. It was in Winchelsea, and the time was October, the month
when nuts and apples are asking to be gathered, and when the leaves put
on their loveliest dress.

As Mr. Wesley felt his time on earth was drawing to a close, he was all
the more eager to "tell to all around, what a dear Saviour he had
found," and how they might find Him too. So he preached at twelve
o'clock noon, the dinner hour of the workmen, in order that they too
might have a chance of hearing the good news. A large oak dining-table
was brought into the churchyard, and there, under the shade of an old
ash tree, John Wesley gave his last message to those working men. "_The
kingdom of Heaven is at hand; repent ye, and believe the Gospel_," was
his text, and as he preached, the tears of the people flowed down their
cheeks.

Long, long afterwards the old ash tree was known as "Wesley's T