limited by their action. '_They_ did
not,' he writes, 'desire the meeting, but _I_ did, knowing that in the
multitude of counsellors there is safety. But,' he adds significantly,
'I sent for them to advise, not to govern me. Neither did I at any of
those times divest myself of any part of that power which the providence
of God cast upon me without any desire or design of mine. What is that
power? It is a power of admitting into and excluding from the societies
under my care; of choosing and removing stewards, of receiving or not
receiving helpers: of appointing them where, when, and how to help me,
and of desiring any of them to meet me when I see good.'[728] They never
dreamt of disobeying him. So great was the awe which he inspired that
when the Deed of Declaration was drawn up in 1784, and Wesley selected,
somewhat arbitrarily, one hundred out of one hundred and ninety-two
preachers to be members of the Conference, though several murmured and
thought it hard that preachers of old standing should be rejected, yet
when the time came none durst oppose him. 'Many,' writes one of the
malcontents, 'were averse to the deed, but had not the courage to avow
their sentiments in Conference. Mr. Wesley made a speech and invited all
who were of his mind to stand up. They all rose to a man.'[729]

It certainly was an extraordinary power for one man to possess; but in
its exercise there was not the slightest taint of selfishness, nor yet
the slightest trace that he loved power for power's sake. His own
account of its rise is perfectly sincere, and artless, and, it is
honestly believed, perfectly true. 'The power I have,' he writes, 'I
never sought; it was the unadvised, unexpected result of the work which
God was pleased to work by me. I therefore suffer it till I can find
some one to ease me of my burthen.' He used his power simply to promote
his one great object--to make his followers better men and better
citizens, happier in this life and thrice happier in the life to come.
If it was a despotism it was a singularly useful and benevolent
despotism, a despotism which was founded wholly and solely upon the
respect which his personal character commanded. Surely if this man had
been, as his ablest biographer represents him,[730] an ambitious man, he
would have used his power for some personal end. He would at least have
yielded to the evident desire of some of his followers and have founded
a separate sect, in which he might have he