Wesley Corpus

xxvii (as in every age) that did honour to their profession, the bigotry and opposition which the Messrs. Wesleys met in the beginning of their efforts to reclaim their fellow creatures, sunk into the depths of misery and vice, was unjustifiable by all the rules of charity. The labouring poor are the most numerous class in every country ; they are not less ne cessary to the happiness of a nation than to the higher ranks of society. In the year 1738 their education was totally neglected ; few of them were taught the duty of attending churches, and there was no possibility ofdoing them good but some extraordinary mode of communication, as their ignorance and vicious habits removed them out of the reach of those salutary methods appointed by government. It was a matter of national importance that so large a part of the community should be instructed in the principles of religion and the social duties of life ; and it is in this point that the names of John and Charles XXviU Wesley and the Rev. George Whitefield will peculiarly be held in honour by the candid and unprejudiced. They directed their labours to those who had no instructor, to the highways and hedges; to the miners in Cornwall and Newcastle, and the colliers in Bristol. These unhappy crea tures married and buried amongst themselves, and often committed murders with impunity. It was always dangerous to pass their woods till these clergymen visited them, and, by their active and unremitting endeavours, a sense of morals, decency, and religion, was introduced : the ignorant were instructed, the wretched relieved, and the abandoned reclaimed. In this arduous task they not only met with op position from the clergy, but shameful treat ment from the magistrates, who (to the dis grace of the times be it mentioned), so far from punishing or restraining a lawless mob assembled to abuse them, encouraged and often instigated their excesses. The Rev. Charles Wesley, in the com