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" I attended him to the scout-boat where he waited some min- utes for his sword. They brought him first, and a second time, a mourning sword. At last they gave him his own which had been his father's. ' With this sword,' said he, ' I was never yet unsuccessful.' 'I hope, sir,' said I, 'you carry with you a bet- ter, even the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.' 'I hope so too,' he added. When the boat put off, I ran before into the woods to see my last of him. Seeing me and two others running after him, he stopped the boat and asked whether we wanted anything. Captain McIntosh, left commander, desired his last orders. I then said ' God be with you. Go forth, Christo duce et aus- pice Christo.' 'You have' says he, 'I think, some verses of mine. You there see my thoughts of success.' His last words
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CHARLES WESLEY AND OGLETHORPE.
to his people were ' God bless you all.' The boat then carried him out of sight." 1
Thus came a rift in the angry skies through which the sun- light of mutual confidence and restored friendship descended to dispel the doubts and gladden the hearts of the general and his secretary.
Upon Oglethorpe's return Wesley met him at the bluff ; and, in the evening, they walked together. The general then in- formed him of the dangers which had recently threatened the colony. Upon giving him back his ring Wesley remarked, " I need not Sir, and indeed I cannot tell you how joyfully and thankfully I return this." " When I gave it to you," responded Oglethorpe, " I never expected to receive it again, but thought it would be of service to your brother and you. I had many omens of my death, particularly their bringing me my mourning sword ; but God has been pleased to preserve a life which was never valuable to me, and yet in the continuance of it, I thank God, I can rejoice." " I am now glad," replied Wesley, " of all that has happened here, since without it I could never have had such a proof of your affection as that you gave me when you looked upon me as the most ungrateful of Villains." While Wesley was speaking, the general appeared full of tenderness to- ward him. He condemned himself for his late anger, which he imputed to want of time for consideration.
" The next day," continues Wesley, " I had some farther talk with him. He ordered me everything he could think I wanted, and promised to have a house built for me immediately. He was just the same to me he formerly had been." Finding that the secretary was restored to the general's favor, the people of Frederica became on the instant civil and courteous.
In May, 1736, Mr. Wesley took leave of the general, having been deputed by him to repair to Savannah and there grant licenses to the Indian traders. In alluding to this departure from Frederica he writes : " I was overjoyed at my deliverance out of this furnace, and not a little ashamed at myself for being so." Persuaded that his days of usefulness in the colony were ended, and purposing a return to England, Mr. Wesley, in June, resigned his commission. In discussing this matter with him General Oglethorpe said : "I would you not to let the trustees know your resolution of resigning. There are many hungry fel- lows ready to catch at the office ; and, in my absence, I cannot
1 Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley, vol. i. pp. 19, 20.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
put in one of my own choosing. The best I can hope for is an honest Presbyterian, as many of the Trustees are such. Perhaps they may send ine a bad man, and how far such a one may in- fluence the traders and obstruct the reception of the Gospel among the heathen, you know. I shall be in England before you leave it. Then you may either put in a deputy or resign."
Charged with dispatches from the general to the government, the trustees, and the Board of Trade, Wesley bade adien to Sa- vannah, and, after a tedious and dangerous voyage interrupted by a deviation to Boston, at which port the vessel, the London Galley, was compelled to put in for repairs and provisions, went ashore at Deal on the 3d of December. He had been accom- panied to Charlestown, South Carolina, whence he sailed, by his brother John. At the time of his departure he was greatly en- feebled by a bloody flux and a fever.
It was his intention to return to Georgia ; and with this object in view he retained his office until April, 1738. While then re- covering from an attack of pleurisy he was notified to embark for the province. His physicians forbade him to undertake the jour- ney. He accordingly renewed his resignation, but General Ogle- thorpe, " unwilling to lose so honest and faithful an officer," still urged him to retain his place, promising to supply it with a deputy until he was "sufficiently recovered to follow." This flattering invitation he felt constrained to decline. In the ensuing month his resignation was accepted, and his connection with the affairs of the colony terminated.
It is worthy of remembrance that the idea of founding and maintaining an orphan house in Georgia was first suggested to the Rev. Mr. Whitefield by the Rev. Charles Wesley.
Upon his arrival in Georgia the Rev. John Wesley, then un- known to fame, but at a later period regarded as the " greatest figure that has appeared in the religious world since the Reforma- tion," accompanied by his friend Delamotte, became a resident of Savannah. Although commissioned as a spiritual adviser to the inhabitants of that town, he preferred to announce and to regard himself rather as a missionary to the Indians than as a minister to the colonists. Chafing under the confinement inci- dent to the discharge of his clerical duties in Savannah, he de- clared, "I never promised to stay here one month. I openly stated, both before and ever since my coming hither, that I neither would nor could take charge of the English any longer than till I could go among the Indians." His ambition was to
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JOHN WESLEY AND TOMO-CHI-CIII.
convert the heathen. With Tomo-chi-chi he had an interview on the 14th of February, 1736. The mico assured him that although the Indians were perplexed by the French on the one hand, by the Spaniards on the other, and by traders in their midst, and that while their ears were now shut and their tongues divided, he would call his chiefs together and persuade the wise men of his nation to hear the Great Word. He cautioned the missionary against making Christians after the fashion in which they were manufactured by the Spaniards, and counseled instruc- tion before baptism. Well did he understand that, for the time being, the presentation of a string of beads or of a silver cross would suffice to seduce the native from the primitive faith in which he had been reared, but in such conversion he reposed no confidence. The conduct of white Christians impressed him un- favorably. Nevertheless he was willing to afford the missionary every facility for the prosecution of his contemplated labors, and by influence and example to induce others to hearken to his teachings. There lurked, however, in the breast of the mico a grave doubt as to the success of the mission. Mr. Wesley's re- ply,1 while perliaps just in the abstract, was little calculated to win the confidence or encourage the sympathy of the chief : " There is but one : - He that sitteth in Heaven, - who is able to teach man wisdom. Tho' we are come so far, we know not whether He will please to teach you by us or no. If He teaches you, you will learn Wisdom, but we can do nothing."
On another occasion, when urged by Mr. Wesley to hearken to the doctrines of Christianity and become a convert, the old man scornfully responded : " Why these are Christians at Savannah ! Those are Christians at Frederica ! Christians drunk ! Christians beat men ! Christians tell lies ! Me no Christian."
Upon the termination of a public audience with the Indians, Mr. Wesley and Tomo-chi-chi dined with Mr. Oglethorpe. The meal concluded, the clergyman asked the aged mico " what he thought he was made for." "He that is above," replied the Indian, "knows what He made us for. We know nothing. We are in the dark. But white men know much, and yet white men build great houses as if they were to live forever. But white men cannot live forever. In a little time white men will be dust as well as I." Wesley responded, "If red men will learn the Good Book they may know as much as white men. But neither we nor you can understand that Book unless we are taught by
1 An Extract of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's Journal, etc., p. 11. Bristol, n. d.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Him that is above ; and He will not teach unless you avoid what you already know is not good." "I believe that," said the chief. " He will not teach us while our hearts are not white, and our men do what they know is not good. Therefore, He that is above does not send us the Good Book." In these sentiments of the native we recognize a strange commingling of satire, irony, and candor, which indicated strength in an apparent confession of weakness, evinced knowledge by an admission of ignorance, and pointed the self-satisfied clergyman to the contemplation of that stern decree which levels both small and great, wise and foolish, civilized and savage, remanding the mightiest as well as the low- liest to one common grave.
In Spence's "Anecdotes "1 we are informed that in a conversa- tion between General Oglethorpe and Tomo-chi-chi in regard to prayer, the latter said the Indians never prayed to God but left it with Him to do what He thought best for them : "that the asking for any particular blessing looked to him like directing God ; and, if so, that it must be a very wicked thing. That for his part he thought everything that happened in the world was as it should be; that God of Himself would do for every one what was con- sistent with the good of the whole; and that our duty to Him was to be content with whatever happened in general, and thank- ful for all the good that happened in particular."
In this conviction the Indian was not singular. Apollonius frequently asserted that the only supplication which ought to be offered by worshipers in the temples of the Gods was: "O Gods ! grant us those things which you deem most conducive to our well-being." Socrates, that oracle of human wisdom, be- cause the Gods who were accustomed to bestow favors were best able to select such gifts as were most fit, warned his disciples against the danger and impropriety of offering petitions for spe- cific things. The prayer, " O Jupiter, ea que bona sunt nobis orantibus, aut non orantibus, tribue ; qua vero mala, etiam oran- tibus ne concede," has been more than once in the school of the philosophers commended as most appropriate. In that wonder- ful satire in which Juvenal, by apt examples, portrays the ruinous consequences which have ensued where the gods complied with the expressed desires of men, it will be remembered that in an- swer to the inquiry,
" Nil ergo optabunt homines ? "
he responds, -
1 London edition of 1820, p. 318.
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JOHN WESLEY AND THE CHICASAWS.
. . . " Si consilium vis, Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid Conveniat nobis, rebusque sit utile nobis." 1
Epicurus believed that invocations, prayers, and sacrifices were superfluous ; that in all the accidents and difficulties of life there was no propriety in having recourse to the Gods, or in prostrat- ing ourselves before their altars; but that we ought, in perfect tranquillity, to contemplate all the vicissitudes of life, and, with- out emotion, confront the changing fortunes which might be- fall us.
" On Tuesday, the 20th day of July," says Mr. Wesley in his Journal, " five of the Chicasaw Indians (twenty of whom had been in Savannah several days) came to see us, with Mr. An- drews, their interpreter. They were all warriors ; - four of them Head-men. The two chiefs were Paustoobee and Mingo Mattaw. Our conference was as follows :
1
" Q. Do you believe there is One above who is over all things ?
Paustoobee answered: " We believe there are four Beloved Things above ; the Clouds, the Sun, the Clear Sky, and He that lives in the Clear Sky.
" Q. Do you believe there is but One that lives in the Clear Sky ?
" A. We believe there are two with him, - three in all.
" Q. Do you think He made the Sun and the other Beloved Things ?
" A. We cannot tell. Who hath seen ?
" Q. Do you think He made you ?
" A. We think He made all men at first.
" Q. How did He make them at first ?
" A. Out of the ground.
" Q. Do you believe He loves you ?
" A. I don't know. I cannot see him.
" Q. But has He not often saved your life ?
" A. He has. Many bullets have gone on this side and many on that side, but He would not let them hurt me. And many bullets have gone into these young Men, and yet they are alive.
" Q. Then, can't He save you from your enemies now ?
" A. Yes; but we know not if He will. We have now so many enemies round about us that I think of nothing but death. And if I am to die, I shall die, and I will die like a man. But
1 Tenth Satire, line 346 et seq.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
if He will have me to live, I shall live. Tho' I had ever so many enemies, He can destroy them all.
" Q. How do you know that ?
" A. From what I have seen. When our enemies came against us before, then the Beloved Clouds came for us. And often much rain and sometimes hail has come upon them, and that in a very hot day. And I saw when many French and Choctaws and other nations came against one of our towns. And the ground made a noise under them, and the Beloved Ones in the air behind them. And they were afraid and went away, and left their meat and drink and their guns. I tell no lie. All these saw it, too.
" Q. Have you heard such noises at other times ?
" A. Yes, often ; before and after almost every battle.
" Q. What sort of Noises were they ?
" A. Like the noise of drums and guns and shouting.
" Q. Have you heard any such lately ?
" A. Yes, four days after our last battle with the French.
" Q. Then you heard nothing before it?
" A. The night before I dream'd I heard many drums up there, and many trumpets there, and much stamping of feet and shout- ing. Till then I thought we should all die. But then I thought the Beloved Ones were come to help us. And the next day I heard above a hundred guns go off before the fight begun. And I said when the Sun is there the Beloved Ones will help us, and we shall conquer our Enemies. And we did so.
" Q. Do you often think and talk of the Beloved Ones ?
" A. We think of them always, wherever we are. We talk of them and to them, at home and abroad, in peace, in war, before and after we fight, and indeed whenever and wherever we meet together.
" Q. Where do you think your souls go after death ?
" A. We believe the Souls of Red Men walk up and down near the place where they died, or where their bodies lie. For we have often heard cries and noises near the place where any prisoners had been burnt.
" Q. Where do the Souls of White Men go after death ?
" A. We can't tell. We have not seen.
" Q. Our belief is that the souls of bad men only walk up and down : but the souls of good men go up.
" A. I believe so too. But I told you the talk of the na- tion.
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REV. JOHN WESLEY.
" (Mr. Andrews. They said at the burying 1 they knew what you were doing. You were speaking to the Beloved Ones above to take up the soul of the young woman.)
" Q. We have a Book that tells us many things of the Be- loved One above. Would you be glad to know them ?
" A. We have no time now but to fight. If we should ever be at peace we should be glad to know.
" Q. Do you expect ever to know what the White Men know ?
"(Mr. Andrews. They told Mr. O. they believe the time will come when the Red and the White Men will be one.)
" Q. What do the French teach you ?
" A. The French Black-Kings 2 never go out. We see you go about. We like that. That is good.
" Q. How came your nation by the knowledge they have ?
" A. As soon as ever the Ground was found and fit to stand upon, it came to us, and has been with us ever since. But we are young men. Our old men know more. But all of them do not know. There are but a few whom the Beloved One chuses from a child, and is in them, and takes care of them, and teaches them. They know these things : and our old men practice: therefore they know : But I don't practice. Therefore I know little." 3
So far as we can ascertain, further conferences between Mr. Wesley and the Indians were infrequent and unaccompanied by any valuable results. Ignorant of their language, and unable to command an interpreter through whom the mysteries of his faith might be intelligently communicated, Mr. Wesley found his cherished scheme for the conversion of the Indians impracticable. He was forced to abandon it and to devote himself to clerical labors among the Europeans.
His first impressions of Savannah were happy. Writing to his mother he says, " The place is pleasant beyond imagination, and, by all I can learn, exceeding healthful even in Summer for those who are not intemperate." He desires that some of the poor and religious persons of Epworth and Wroote would come over to him. Although his parishioners numbered some seven hundred,4 there being no church edifice, religious services were held in the court-house. His scholarly attainments, earnest man-
1 Some days previously a young woman Wesley's Journal, pp. 26-28. Bristol, had been buried in Savannah, and these n. d.
Indians were present at the funeral.
2 Priests.
8 An Extract of the Rev. Mr. John
4 In July, 1737, Mr. Wesley took a cen- sus of Savannah by going from house to house, and computed the number of in-
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
ner, and well-considered discourses at first attracted the favor- able notice of the community. So popular was he then as a preacher that, a public ball and religious exercises being an- nounced for the same hour, " the church was full while the ball- room was so empty that the entertainment could not go forward."
Contrasting his agreeable surroundings with the trials which his brother Charles was experiencing at Frederica, he exclaims, "How different are the ways wherein we are led; yet I hope toward the same end. I have hitherto had no opposition at all ; all is smooth and fair and promising. Many seem to be awak- ened ; all are full of respect and commendation. We cannot see any cloud gathering; but this calm cannot last; storms must come hither too ; and let them come when we are ready to meet them."
His friend Delamotte had organized a school of between thirty and forty children whom he taught " to read, write, and cast ac- counts." Every Saturday afternoon, and on the Lord's day be- fore the evening service, Mr. Wesley catechised these pupils. Thus was inaugurated the first Sunday-school in the province of Georgia.
As many of his parishioners as desired to do so met at his house after the evening service, and also on every Wednesday afternoon to " spend about an hour in prayer, singing, and mutual exhortation." This was the earliest series of prayer-meetings held in the colony; and here, in the modest and scantily fur- nished reception room of the parsonage in Savannah, was cra- dled the Methodist Episcopal Church, destined to become one of the most potent societies among the Protestant denominations of the world.1
With the Moravian bishop, Nitschman, he associated on terms of the closest and tenderest intimacy. Truly did he admire his simple faith, unostentatious piety, his quiet demeanor, his stern integrity, his irreproachable character. It was most agreeable to him to commune with the members of that sect and to minister to them in seasons of sickness and distress. His clerical engage- ments at Savannah were occasionally interrupted by visits to Fred- erica. There he found "so little either of the form or power of religion " that he expresses his joy in being " removed from it."
habitants at 518, of whom 149 were under sixteen years of age. The rest of his parishioners dwelt in the neighborhood of the town.
1 Mr. Wesley thus interprets the rise of Methodism: " The first rise of Methodism was in 1729 when four of us met together
at Oxford. The second was at Savannah in 1736 when twenty or thirty persons met at my house. The last was at Lon- don on this day, May 1st 1738, when forty or fifty of us agreed to meet together every Wednesday Evening."
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REV. JOHN WESLEY IN SAVANNAH.
Despite his earnestness and regularity in the discharge of his priestly ministrations, his labors ceased to be crowned with the success which at the outset of his career waited upon them, and he clearly perceived that his popularity both as a preacher and as a spiritual adviser was manifestly on the wane. Persuaded that his whole heart was in his work, he was at a loss to account for these distressing indications, which daily grew more decided.
Observing much coolness in the behavior of one who had pro- fessed friendship for him, Mr. Wesley demanded the reason, and was answered on this wise : " I like nothing you do; all your sermons are satires upon particular persons. Therefore I will never hear you more : and all the people are of my mind, for we won't hear ourselves abused. Besides, they say they are Protes- tants, but as for you they can't tell what religion you are of. They never heard of such a religion before. They do not know what to make of it. And then your private behaviour : all the quarrels that have been here since you came have been long of you. Indeed there is neither man nor woman in the town who minds a word you say ; and so you may preach long enough but nobody will come to hear you."
Many took offense at his rigid adherence to the custom of bap- tism by immersion. In the celebration of the Lord's Supper he would admit no Dissenter to the Communion unless he consented to be re-baptized. He insisted upon dividing the public prayers " according to the original appointment of the Church; " begin- ning the morning prayers at five, the litany, Communion office, and sermon at eleven, and the evening service at three. He was also charged with a design to establish auricular confession as a prerequisite to admission to the privileges of the Holy Com- munion. Forgetting the injunctions of the Rev. Dr. Burton, so excessive was his zeal in the advocacy of favorite doctrinal views and in the denunciation of evil that he moulded his dis- courses so that they became caustic satires not only upon the condition of affairs but upon the conduct of individuals. His rebukes and corrections were pungently administered alike in private and in public. He was on all occasions a censor morum, and his criticisms were passed equally upon magistrate, citizen, and church member. Instead of drawing men by the cords of love, he alienated them by his denunciations and applied stric- tures. In the language of another, he " drenched them with the physic of an intolerant discipline." Overstepping the limits which should be observed at all times by a clergyman, he busied
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
himself with the quarrels and complaints of the town, and in open court counseled the inhabitants to oppose the magistrates in the execution of justice.1
Such unusual conduct angered the people, and gradually they discontinued their attendance upon divine worship. Wesley lost the power which he at first exerted over the consciences of the populace. He alienated the affections of his hearers, and in the end became convinced that he was accomplishing little in the ser- vice of his Master. Not long afterwards, in reviewing this period of his life, so unsatisfactory in its efforts and so replete with trials and disappointments, he freely confessed that he who went to America to convert others was then himself unconverted to God ; 2 that all the time he was in Savannah he was " beating the air," " fighting continually but not conquering," and failing to appre- ciate the loving kindness of the Lord.
. He who at subsequent period
" Filled the earth with golden fruit, With ripe millennial love,"
was the prolific cause of unrest, and almost an object of hatred in the community.
Meanwhile Mr. Wesley enjoyed wonderful health. His con- stitution seemed to improve under hardships and labors which would have impaired the stoutest physical powers. Of the three hundred acres set apart in Savannah for glebe land he cut off what he deemed sufficient for a good garden, and there he fre- quently worked with his own hands. He ate moderately, slept little, and left not a moment of his time unemployed. To the changing seasons, and in all kinds of weather, he exposed himself with the utmost indifference. His journeys into South Carolina were sometimes performed on foot, and with no shelter at night save the friendly boughs of a tree. His energy, resolution, self- denial, and endurance were at all times conspicuous.
The circumstances which brought the usefulness and services of Mr. Wesley as a clergyman in Savannah to an abrupt and a notorious conclusion may be thus briefly narrated. With Mr. Causton, the chief bailiff and keeper of the public stores, and with the members of his family, the missionary associated on friendly terms. Miss Sophia Hopkins, a niece of Mrs. Causton, and a young woman of uncommon personal and intellectual
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