h. Then he accused Mr. Wesley of
frightening the people out of their wits.

"Did you ever hear me preach?" said Mr. Wesley.

"No," was the reply.

"Then how do you know I frighten people?"

"By what I have heard."

"Oh!" said Mr. Wesley. "Then is not your name Nash?"

"It is," said the Beau.

"Well, sir, I suppose, then, I must judge you by what I have heard of
you."

This reply so confounded the young man that he could not say a word, and
when an old woman in the congregation stood up and told the Beau what
she thought about him, the "King of Bath," as he was called, slunk away,
and took himself off.

This affair made a great stir in Bath, and when Mr. Wesley went through
the town the streets were full of people, hurrying up and down, wanting
to see him.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVIII.

Good out of evil.--What Mr. Wesley
preached.--"Hurrah!"--In the prison.--How the
wicked Methodists spoiled the woollen
trade.--Emilia Wesley says strong things.--In the
sunlight.

I KNOW you will have thought it very unkind of the clergymen not
allowing such a good man as Mr. Wesley to preach in their churches; and
so it was, very unkind, and very wrong. These clergymen thought so
themselves after a time; but God often uses the wrong doings of people
to bring about a great good, and He did so in this case.

Perhaps if the churches had not been closed against Mr. Wesley and Mr.
Whitefield they would never have preached in the open air, and thousands
of people, who would not go to a church, might never have heard the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You boys and girls love father and mother and home, do you not? And when
you have been away at day-school or boarding-school, oh! how glad you
always are to get to them again. Well, in the same way we all come from
God; He is our Father, and heaven is our home, and all of us, deep down
inside of us, have a longing to go home again some day. But Adam and Eve
had to be punished for their disobedience; and the punishment was that
they and all that were born after them should die, and never go back to
home and to God. This was a terrible punishment, was it not? But you
know how Jesus Christ, God's Son, in His great love and pity for us said
He would come down from heaven, and be a man on earth; that He would go
through life just as we have to do, and at last die. Then God said if
His dear Son did this,