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THE KING’S BUSINESS
undergraduate, having been elected to Christ ■Church. Little is known o f the first three or four years o f his university life, except that he was steady, studious, and remarkable for his classical knowledge and genius for composition. It is evident, however, that he made the best use o f his times at college, and picked up as much as he could in a day when honorary class-lists were unknown, and incitements to study were very few. Like most great divines, he found the advantage o f university edu cation all his life long. Men might dislike his theology, but they could never say that he was a fool, and had no right to be heard. CHOOSING A PROFESSION In the beginning o f 1725, at the age o f twenty-two, he seems to have gone through much exercise o f mind as to the choice o f a profession. Naturally enough, he thought o f taking orders, but was somewhat daunted by serious reflection on the solemnity o f the step. This very reflection, however, appears to have been most useful to him, and to have produced in his mind deeper thoughts about God, his soul, and religion generally, than he had ever entertained before. He began to study divinity, and to go through a regular course o f reading for the ministry. He had, probably, no very trustworthy guide in his choice o f religious literature at this period. The books which apparently had the greatest in fluence on him were Jeremy Taylor’s “Holy Living and Dying,” and Thomas a Kempis’s / ‘Imitation o f Christ.” Devout and well- meaning as these authors are, they certainly were not likely to give him very clear views o f scriptural Christianity, or very cheerful and happy views o f Christ’s service. In short, though they did him good by making him feel that true religion was a serious business, and a concern o f the heart, they evidently left him in much darkness and perplexity. At this stage o f John Wesley’s lifie, his correspondence with his father and mother is :peculiarly interesting, and highly credit able both to the parents and the son. He evidently opened his mind to them and told
ishment for neglecting the opportunity of doing good, when you and I shall appear before the great and awful tribunal o f our Lord Jesus Christ.” A mother o f this stamp was just the person to leave deep marks and impres sions on the minds o f her children. O f the old rector o f Epworth we can trace little in his sons John and Charles, except, per haps, their poetical genius. But there is much in John’s career and character throughout life which shows the hand of his mother. SAVED FROM FIRE The early years o f John Wesley’s life appear to have passed quietly away in his Lincolnshire home. The only remarkable event recorded by his biographers is his marvellous escape from being burnt alive, when Epworth rectory was burned down. This happened in 1709, when he was six years old, and seems to have been vividly impressed on his mind. He was pulled through the bedroom window, at the last moment, by a man who, for want o f a lad der, stood on another man’s shoulders. Just at that moment the roof fell in, but happily fell inward, and the boy and his deliverer escaped unhurt. He says himself, in his description o f the event: “When they brought me to the house where my father was, he cried out, ‘Come, neighbors, let us kneel down! Let us give thanks to God! He has given me all my eight children; let the house go, I am rich enough.’ ” In the year 1714, at the age o f eleven, John Wesley was placed at the Charter- house School in London. That mighty plunge in life—a boy’s first entrance at a public school-—seems to have done him no harm. He had probably been well grounded at his father’s house in all the rudiments o f a classical education, and soon became distinguished for his . diligence and prog ress at school. At the age o f sixteen his elder brother, then an usher at Westmin ster, describes him as “a brave boy, learn ing Hebrew as fast as he can.” In the year 1720, at the age o f seventeen, John Wesley went Up to O xford as an
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