876 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
several months he seems to have led a very unsettled life-moving from place
to place, and occasionally preaching. At length, for the purpose of receiving
instruction on some points of theology, regarding which his mind was ill at ease,
he visited Herrnhut, the residence of the Moravians in Germany. After a short
time he again returned to England ; and, having been joined by his former
college companion, Whitfield, he commenced preaching in private houses, and
ultimately in the fields and streets. This ancient, and sometimes useful mode
of instructing the people, he from this time forward employed to the end of his
life ; visiting on preaching excursions almost every part of the United Kingdom.
On
several occasions, both he and his brother were severely handled by the tumultuous
and ignorant mob. Nothing can more strikingly evince the extraordinary
character of the man than the undaunted sincerity and unchanging resolution
with which he maintained the course he had chosen, in spite of all the hardships,
sufferings, and persecutions to which it exposed him.
In 1751, Mr. Wesley entered into the marriage relation with a Mrs. Vizelle,
a widow of independent fortune. This union proved singularly unhappy. That
. Mrs. Wesley had some good properties appears indubitable; but these were
absorbed in a spirit of fierce and harrowing jealousy of her husband. To such an
extent was this allowed to work upon her mind, that it must have bordered on
insanity, as nothing short of madness can explain her conduct. “It is said
that she frequently travelled a hundred miles for the purpose of watching
from a window who was in the carriage with him when he entered a town. She
searched his pockets, opened his letters, put his letters and papers into the hands
of his enemies, in hopes that they might be made use of to blast his character,
and sometimes laid violent hands upon him, and tore his hair.” After being
the torment of his life for twenty years, she at length left him, carrying off part
of his journals and papers. Of his feelings on this occasion, some idea may be
formed from the brief but pithy comment upon it in his journal, where, after
noticing the fact, he adds in Latin-Non earn relipui, non dimisi, non wvocabo.
“ I did not leave her-I did not dismiss her-I will not recall her.”
His last
sermon was preached at Leatherhead, on Wednesday the 24th of February 1791.
At that time he was suffering severely from an attack of cold, accompanied with
fever, so that he preached with great difficulty. He continued growing weaker
and more lethargic till the 2d of March, when, after uttering the exclamation-
“ Farewell ! ’’ he, without a lingering groan, entered into his rest. He died in
the eighty-eighth year of his age, and sixty-fifth of his ministry-full of years,
and full of honours.
Wesley visited Scotland several times ; but the success which had attended
his labours in England did not follow him across the borders. In one of his
journals he complains bitterly of the insensibility of the Scotch, “0 ! what a
difference between the living stones and the dead unfeeling multitudes of Scotland,’!
is one of his lamentations. The experience of his friend Whitfield,
Nor were such attempts at that time unaccompanied with danger.
Mr. Wesley continued his laborious exertions to the very last.
