In 1747, a few

with all other phenomena of conversion. obscure persons in Barnard Castle, who had heard of the fame of Mr. Wesley, and began to think about the salvation of their souls as their chief personal interest, met together to read the Scriptures, the books which John Wesley had published, to sing hymns, and to pray. This they did nightly, though frequently mocked and disturbed. Among the mockers was a young man named Thomas Hanby. In the midst of his mirth, he felt a secret persuasion that the poor people whom he had been despising were right. He begged to join them, and endured the fate of those who turn from the ranks of the persecutors to those of the persecuted. Finding direct opposition to be unavailing, the clergyman of the parish proposed to him to be at the head of a class for moral reformation. This position he took, and his class soon outnumbered the Methodists. This negative association did not last, and Hanby rejoined the society in the upper room for reading and prayer. He says, "God continued to draw me with strong desires: I spent much time praying in the fields, woods, and barns. Any place, and every place, was now a closet to my mourning soul, and I longed for the Day-star to arise in my poor benighted heart. And it pleased Infinite Mercy, while I was praying, that the Lord set my weary soul at liberty. The next day the Lord was pleased to withdraw the ecstasy of joy, and I had well-nigh given up my confidence; but the Lord met me again, while I was in the fields, and from that time I was enabled to keep a weak hold of the precious Lord Jesus.” *

* "Arminian Magazine," vol. iii.

We have heard similar utterances so often, that they would be properly considered to be conventional, were it not that they have come from solitary hearts utterly unacquainted with each other, and ignorant of any other expressions than those which their own experience dictated. It is not merely the similarity which arises from common agreement or sympathy, but the operation of the same Divine Spirit which worketh all in all.

The reappearance of vital religion at this time did not result from any restitution of forgotten doctrines, but from the newly-awakened concern respecting eternal things produced by fervent Gospel-preaching. The masses of the people were so far gone in insensibility, that the very sense of spiritual things appears to have been practically lost. The world that now is, had succeeded in ignoring the world that is to come. Correct standards of belief were still displayed in some places; but they kindled no attachment or enthusiasm, and were really deserted. There was no extraordinary obloquy, no virulent persecution, but all parties accepted as sound reason, the maxim that worldly-mindedness was the whole duty of man.

Meanwhile, the kingdom of God was coming, not with observation, not in one mode only, not by formal announcement or contrivance, but in its own spontaneous way.

In 1735, Mr. Howell Harris, a Christian gentleman, of Trevecca in Brecknockshire, of good attainments, ardent piety, and ready utterance, began to go from house to house in his own parish, exhorting sinners to "flee from the wrath to come." He next traversed the whole district, read, expounded, and finally preached God's word.

Multitudes flocked to listen; many were converted and saved. In four years he established four hundred gatherings of believers in South Wales. Many ministers joined the ranks a general itineracy for preaching was established. Again the necessities of the soul broke through human systems. A great revival of religion took place. For twelve years the work progressed. The preaching was in the open air, or in any public building that could be secured. The people then began to build chapels. The first was opened at Builth in 1747.

About the year 1743, a few poor persons in Scotland associated themselves together for a service of prayer for the revival of religion. Mr. Robe, minister of Kilsyth, speaks in this year of thirty societies of young people then existing in Edinburgh for united prayer. The example spread: there were forty-five in Glasgow, others in Aberdeen and Dundee. In October of the next year, 1744, a number of Scottish ministers resolved to promote this method. They fixed a time when, on every Saturday evening, every Sunday morning, and every first Tuesday in the quarter, special prayer should be made for the extension of Christ's kingdom on the earth. They began the holy practice. Before the first season had closed, they felt their hearts so warmed, that they agreed on a memorial on the subject, to be addressed and sent to the Churches of Christ in England and America. This precious document is dated August 26th, 1746. The request was well received, and acted upon. England, Wales, Ireland, and North America responded to the appeal. The reign of apathy had ceased. We are standing over the upburst

of the great stream of divine life, which has ever since flowed in augmenting volume.

Another instance, lying quite apart from the currents of public life, is afforded by the case of the Rev. Thomas Adam, the worthy rector of Winteringham, in Lincolnshire. About the year 1740, he was fulfilling his routine of duties with exactness, living so as to satisfy himself and stand well with the world. He became acquainted with the writings of Mr. Law and the mystics. These induced within him the desire for peace with God, but showed him not the way of its attainment. After stumbling for a year or two amidst theological difficulties, consulting commentators in vain, striving for inward satisfaction so strenuously that his friends deemed him to be insane, he emerged into the glorious liberty and divine peace of the Gospel. The process is narrated by his biographer, Stillingfleet, as follows:-"One morning, in his study, being much distressed on the subject, he fell down upon his knees before God in prayer-spread his case before the Divine Majesty and Goodness, imploring. Him to pity his distress, and to guide him by his Holy Spirit into the right understanding of his own truth. When he arose from his supplication, he took the Greek Testament, and set himself down to read the first six chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, sincerely desirous to be taught of God, and to receive, in the simplicity of a child, the word of His revelation; when, to his unspeakable comfort and astonishment, his difficulties vanished-a most clear and satisfactory light was given him into this great subject. He saw the doctrine of justification by Jesus

Christ alone, through faith, to be the great subject of the Gospel, the highest display of the Divine perfections, the happiest relief for his burdened conscience, and the most powerful principle of all constant and unfeigned holiness of heart and life. He was rejoiced exceedingly he found peace and comfort spring up in his mind; his conscience was purged from guilt through the atoning blood of Christ, and his heart set at liberty to run the way of God's commands without fear, in a spirit of filial love and holy delight; and from that hour he began to preach salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, to man, by nature and practice lost and condemned under the law, and, as his own expression is, always a sinner."*

In the year 1739, Mr. Ingham, one of the small clerical Wesleyan band at Oxford, on his return to his native Yorkshire, began to hold religious meetings in his mother's house, at which the neighbours attended, and from which a considerable religious awakening originated. He went to Georgia, afterwards to Germany; but in 1738 preached with great fervency and power in the populous towns of the West Riding; and when the churches were denied to him, he went out into the fields, or into barns, and there proclaimed his message, until the whole country rang with the fame of the Gospel, and forty religious societies were formed. A number of lay preachers likewise went out to meet the urgency of the times.

Among those who went to hear the first preaching of the Methodists, was a noble lady, the sister of Lord Huntingdon, the Lady Margaret Hastings. The truth

*Life of Adam, by Dr. Stillingfleet, 1785.