Sacred to the Memory
“forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take into himself the soul of our dear brother,” — etc., he substituted with the most tender emphasis the epithet father for brother, which had so touching an effect that almost all present broke out into loud weeping. The funeral sermon was preached in the forenoon, to a very crowded and attentive congregation; among whom were many Clergymen and Dissenting Ministers.
The following is the inscription on the marble tablet afterwards placed in the chapel, City-road: —
SACRED TO THE MEMORY
OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A..
SOMETIME FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD;
A Man in Learning and sincere Piety Scarcely inferior to any; In Zeal, Ministerial Labors, and extensive Usefulness, Superior, perhaps, to all Men, Since the days of St. Paul. Regardless of Fatigue, personal Danger, and Disgrace, He went out into the highways and hedges Calling Sinners to Repentance, And publishing the Gospel of Peace. He was the Founder of the Methodist Societies, And the chief Promoter and Patron Of the Plan of Itinerant preaching, Which He extended through Great Britain and Ireland.
The West Indies and America, With unexampled Success. He was born the 17th of June, 1703; And died the 2nd of March, 1791, In sure and certain hope of Eternal Life, Through the Atonement and Mediation of a Crucified Savior. He was sixty-five Years in the Ministry, And fifty-two an Itinerant Preacher: He lived to see, in these Kingdoms only, About three hundred Itinerant, And one thousand Local Preachers, Raised up from the midst of his own People; And eighty thousand Persons in the Societies under his care. His Name will be ever had in grateful Remembrance By all who rejoice in the universal Spread Of the Gospel of Christ. SOLI DEO GLORIA
This Inscription shows the number of Preachers and members of society at the time of Mr. Wesley’s death. The number of Circuits at home was 115, and the Mission Stations were eight in the West Indies, and eight in British America. The Minutes of the last Conference (1834) mark the vast increase of the work since the venerable Founder of Methodism was taken home to his reward. The number of Circuits in Great Britain and Ireland was then 411; and of Mission Station in the four quarters of the globe 177. The number of regular Preachers stationed at home was 1070, and on the Missions abroad 236; while the societies amounted in Great Britain to 291,939; in Ireland to 25,614, and on the Foreign Stations to 48,304. The Conference in Upper Canada had under its care 14,930 members, and sixty-four regular Preachers; and in the United States the number of regular Preachers and Missionaries was 2,400, and the societies amounted to 619,771 members. The total number of members in the
Wesleyan-Methodist societies throughout the world, exclusive of regular Traveling Preachers, who are stately employed in the ministry, was, 1,000,558.
To say nothing of the advantages which other religious bodies have derived indirectly from Methodism, such are some of its direct effects. Such is the success which has rewarded the Methodists for keeping their original object steadily in vicar, and striving to promote the work of true religion independently of party considerations. The spirit of Methodism has never been the spirit of party. There is not indeed so much of formal union between the Methodists and the Church as in Mr. Wesley’s day. The general introduction of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, a measure which Mr. Wesley strenuously opposed to the last, has certainly made the separation between his followers and the Church more visible; but this was not the result of hostility to the Church, nor for the reasons usually urged by the Dissenters. The separation which subsists between the Methodists and the national Church was rather the result of circumstances, and it took place so as to leave unimpaired the general feeling of affection on the part of the Methodists for all that is excellent in the Establishment. That feeling has strengthened as the number of evangelical laborious Ministers has in erased in the Church, and her services have thus improved in spirituality and efficiency. Recognizing in her “the mother of us all” and contemplates with deepest admiration her noble army of Confessors and Martyrs, and the illustrious train of her Divines, whose writings have been, and continue to be, the light of Christendom, the followers of Mr. Wesley wish the national Church prosperity and perpetuity. At the same time they cherish true Christian affection for all other evangelical denominations, and rejoice in their success in spreading our common Christianity. Thus have the Methodists ever been “the friends of all, and enemies of none;” and if, maintaining their purity and energy, they proceed in their providential course, practically “remembering one fundamental principle of Wesleyan Methodism is ANTI-SECTARIANISM AND A CATHOLIC SPIRIT” they must, under the divine blessing, prosper to a far greater extent. If, continuing to overlook all mere party-objects, they unwaveringly pursue their high, their hallowed aim simply to promote the spread of pure Christianity throughout the land and the world at large, they will not fail to answer the end for which their great Founder ever regarded the Methodists as raised up by the head of the Church; and the blessings of their system will be diffused still more widely, and will descend to ages yet unborn.