t man was John Wesley. Eight years before his
death he said, 'I have been reflecting on my past life; I have been
wandering up and down between fifty and sixty years, endeavouring in my
poor way to do a little good to my fellow-creatures.' And the more
closely his career has been analysed, the more plainly has the truth of
his own words been proved. His quarrel was solely with sin and Satan.
His master passion was, in his own often-repeated expression, the love
of God and the love of man for God's sake. The world has at length done
tardy justice to its benefactor. Indeed, the danger seems now to lie in
a different direction--not indeed, in over-estimating the character of
this remarkable man, but in making him a mere name to conjure with, a
mere peg to hang pet theories upon. The Churchman casts in the teeth of
the Dissenter John Wesley's unabated attachment to the Church; the
Dissenter casts in the teeth of the Churchman the bad treatment Wesley
received from the Church; and each can make out a very fair case for his
own side. But meanwhile the real John Wesley is apt to be presented to
us in a very one-sided fashion. Moreover, his character has suffered
from the partiality of injudicious friends quite as much as from the
unjust accusations of enemies. It is peculiarly cruel to represent him
as a faultless being, a sort of vapid angel. We can never take much
interest in such a character, because we feel quite sure that, if the
whole truth were before us, he would appear in a different light. John
Wesley's character is a singularly interesting one, interesting for this
very reason, that he was such a thorough man--full of human infirmities,
constantly falling into errors of judgment and inconsistencies, but
withal a noble specimen of humanity, a monument of the power of Divine
grace to mould the rough materials of which man is made into a polished
stone, meet to take its place in the fabric of the temple of the living
God.

The best interpreter of John Wesley is John Wesley himself. He has left
us in his own writings a picture of himself, drawn by his own hand,
which is far more faithful than that which has been drawn by any other.

The whole family of the Wesleys, including the father, the mother, and
all the brothers and sisters without exception, was a very interesting
one. There are certain traits of character which seem to have been
common to them all. Strong, vigorous good sense, an earnest,
straightforward desir