frightful truth ought to be proclaimed from the housetops at every
opportunity, from the highway of every occasion." They were good,
honest men. They believed their doctrine. And they said: "If there is
a hell, and a Niagara of souls pouring over an eternal precipice of
ignorance, somebody ought to say something." They were right; somebody
ought, if such thing was true. Wesley was a believer in the Bible. He
believed in the actual presence of the Almighty. God used to do
miracles for him; used to put off a rain several days to give his
meeting a chance; used to cure his horse of lameness; used to cure Mr.
Wesley's headaches.

And Mr. Wesley also believed in the actual existence of the devil. He
believed that devils had possession of people. He talked to the devil
when he was in folks, and the devil told him that he was going to
leave; and that he was going into another person; that he would be
there at a certain time; and Wesley went to that other person, and
there the devil was, prompt to the minute. He regarded every
conversion as an absolute warfare between God and this devil for the
possession of that human soul. Honest, no doubt. Mr. Wesley did not
believe in human liberty. Honest, no doubt. Was opposed to the liberty
of the colonies. Honestly so. Mr. Wesley preached a sermon entitled,
"The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes," in which he took the ground that
earthquakes were caused by sin and the only way to stop them was to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt an honest man.

Wesley and Whitfield fell out on the question of predestination. Wesley
insisted that God invited everybody to the feast. Whitfield said He
did not invite those He knew would not come. Wesley said He did.
Whitfield said: "Well, He didn't put plates for them, anyway." Wesley
said He did. So that, when they were in hell, he could show them that
there was a seat left for them. And that Church that they founded is
still active. And probably no Church in the world has done so much
preaching for as little money as the Methodists. Whitfield believed in
slavery and advocated the slave trade. And it was of Whitfield that
Whittier made the two lines:

He bade the slave ships speed from coast to coast, Fanned by the wings
of the Holy Ghost.

We have lately had a meeting of the Methodists, and I find, by their
statistics, that they believe they have converted 130,000 folks in a
year. That in order to do this, they have 26,000