ts of names and
abused dreadfully. But the good people had got so used to this that they
did not mind, indeed, they hardly expected any other treatment. In those
days very few of the poor people could read, and one newspaper
complained that nearly every one who went to hear the Methodists wanted
to learn to read the Bible, and as soon as ever he could spell out a
chapter he would go and read it to some one who could not read, and then
they would talk about it together. This, the paper said, wasted a great
deal of time, for the men were so busy talking and reading their Bibles
that they could not get on with their work, and the woollen trade in
Yorkshire would soon be ruined. Of course this last was not true, and
was only said to stop the Methodists from preaching. It showed, however,
how sincere and how much in earnest the people were.

But amidst all the persecutions of mobs of ignorant and brutal men and
women who knew no better, and of abuse and slander by the rich and the
educated, who ought to have known better, nothing pained Mr. Wesley so
much as the unkind words of his sister Emilia. She was his favourite
sister, and he thought a great deal about her opinion. In an angry
letter she wrote him, she said the Methodists were "a lot of bad
people."

However, John Wesley and his friends calmly went on doing the work they
felt God had called them to do. The peace of God was in their hearts,
and the sunlight of His love brightened their faces, and made them
tender and forgiving to all their enemies. As Jesus Christ prayed for
the cruel men who crucified Him, so they prayed: "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do."

[Illustration]

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CHAPTER XIX.

Don't believe all you hear.--Mrs. Wesley finds her
"dear Jack" true to his colours.--She joins the
Methodists.--And thus dreadfully shocks her eldest
son.--Death of Mr. Samuel Wesley.--A loving
mother's letter to "her boy."

I THINK Mr. Wesley's greatest trouble at this time was, that even his
dear mother, whom he had not seen for a long, long time, believed many
of the things that people were saying about him, and felt sure he had
wandered away from the true religion of Jesus Christ.

It does not do for us to believe all we hear, and when at last Mrs.
Wesley went to London, and saw and talked with her sons, she found all
the tales had been untrue, and that her "dear Jack" wa