Under this unexampled leadership, continued through half a century, the organization which was begun with the feeble society at Fetter Lane, London, in 1739, had developed in 1790 into a powerf^ul body consisting of five hundred and eleven preachers, laboring on two hun- dred and sixteen circuits, which covered vast territories in Great Britain and Ireland, in the West Indies, and in America ; and numbering in its fellowship over one hun-
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dred and twenty thousand souls. Bcsiiles this enrolled membership, there were at least four times as many per- sons worshippins in Methodist congregations. These swelled the number of his adherents, at the time of his deatli, to at least half a million of souls. But outside of this army of avowed adherents there was "a multi- tude which no man could number," who had been spir- itually and morally benefited by the movement which this truly marvellous man had inaugurated, and which, for half a century, he guided with almost unexampled wisdom and energy.
X. His Jkuth.^Ai:.Q could not chill the zeal of this apostolic man. Despite of its burdens and inlirmities, he would not slacken his labors until the approach of death benumbed his powers. Eight days before his death he preached his last sermon at Leatherhead, near London. His ])hysical nature then gave way. A grad- ual sinking of his physical forces followed, during which his mind was generally clear, his faith strong, his peace perfect, his hope triumphant. On March 2, 1791, he passed, '• without a lingering groan," into the felicities of the blessed life, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. His remains were interred in the burial-ground of City Bead Chapel.
Wesley left no children. In February, 1751, he had married the widow of a deceased London merchant named Vazeille. It was an unfortunate marriage. The ladv could not, or at least did not, enter into sympathy with her husband's great life-work. She shrank from the toil which his incessant journeying involved, and, after a short time, refused to accompany him to his ap- pointments. Neither would she cheerfully consent to his almost constant absence from home. Hence, after a few years, they lived apart. (She died Oct. 8, 1781,
XI. Personal Appearance and Character. — When he was forty-one years of age Weslej' was described by Dr. Kennicott as being "neither tall nor fat, . . . His black hair, quite smooth and parted very exactly, added to a peculiar composure in his countenance, showed him to be an uncommon man." Tyerman says, "In person Wesley was rather below the middle size, but beauti- fully proportioned, without an atom of superfluous flesh ; yet muscular and strong, with a forehead clear and smooth, a bright penetrating eye, and a lovely face, which retained the freshness of its complexion to the latest period of his life."
As a preacher Wesley was calm, graceful, natural, and attractive. "His voice was not loud, but clear and manly." He was not an orator like Whitefield, but his preaching was remarkable for unction, compactness and transparency of style, clear and sharply defined ideas, power over the conscience, impressiveness and author- ity.
In social life Wesle}' never trifled, but he was always cheerful. He was an admirable conversationalist, fidl of anecdote, witty, courteous, gentle, serious, and at ease with both rich and poor. Though naturally irritable, he was master of himself, and was, in all respects, " a Christian gentleman." A more charitable man proba- bly never existed. His benevolence was only limited by his resources. After reducing his personal expenses to the lowest point consistent with the maintenance of his health and respectable appearance, he spent the rest of his income in works of charity.
If a man's work is the measure of his mind, Wesley must be ranked among men of the highest intellectual order. A nature that could impress itself as his did on his generation, that could create and govern almost ab- solutely an organization such as he called into existence, must have been truly regal — born to ride. Had he pos- sessed a more philosopliioal imagination, and had he given himself to speculative thought, the world might have rated him higher among its profound thinkers than it does. There is, however, no valid reason for doubting his capacity to pursue successfully almost any department of human knowledge. His journals and other writings show that ho had a rare aptitude and
appetite for both reading and thinking; but the practi- cal cast of his mind led him to avoid speculation, and to turn his knowledge to account in a multitude of channels running in the direction of the one chosen aim of his life. Yet the clearness of his thoughts, while it led men to underestimate their depth, showed the far- reaching penetrativeness of his mind. His percejjtion of things and their relations was rather intuitive than the residtant of a slow and tedious process of reasoning. His mind was therefore less a workshop than a window through which he viewed the facts of nature, the course of human history, and the revelations of Holy Writ, with such clear vision as enabled him to present them to men with a mental force so logical and authoritative, and in a style so terse and direct, that their judgments were convinced, their affections won, and their wills subdued by the truths he uttered.