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Story of John Wesley Told to Boys and Girls

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<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> <div class="blockquot"><p>More peeps into the Magic Mirror.—A special picture for Sheffield readers.—Another for young folks in Oldham.—Little Daniel on the pulpit stairs.—Special for Hull.</p> </div> <div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/cap-i.png" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="I" title="" /></div> <div class='unindent'><br/>   THINK we must have some more peeps into that Magic Mirror? Will my little Sheffield readers take a good look? What do we see? A street in a big town, and oh! such crowds and crowds of people on both sides of the road. The windows of the houses, too, are all crowded with people. What can it all mean? See! there are two men coming along, everybody is turning to look at them, and we can hear more than one voice saying: "God bless him! God bless him!" Several of the women are wiping their eyes with the corner of their aprons; there are tears in many eyes. Look at the two men as they come nearer. One is a middle-aged man; the other, who is leaning on his arm, wears a black gown and white bands. He is an old man, but how beautiful he looks. He has<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</SPAN></span> a splendid face, a clear skin and rosy cheeks. His eyes are quick and keen, and he has long, shiny hair, white and bright like silver.</div> <p>See now how the children are crowding round him! He is smiling down upon them and putting his hands upon their heads as he passes. Now he is stretching his hands out towards heaven, and blessing all the people, many of whom are weeping aloud. He has passed down the street, and the picture has gone. Sheffield readers, that was how your town welcomed and honoured dear John Wesley a short time before his death.</p> <p>Now peep again into the Magic Mirror. And this time I would like my Oldham readers to step to the front. See, there is a little boy about six years old playing at the door of a house. An old clergyman is passing, and stops to speak to the child.</p> <p>"Where is your father, Daniel?" he says.</p> <p>"Gone to chapel."</p> <p>"And your mother?"</p> <p>"She's gone too," answers Daniel.</p> <p>"And you shall go too, my boy. You must not miss seeing this great man, John Wesley," says the clergyman, as he takes the child's hand and fades away from our picture.</p> <p>But see, there is another coming! It is the inside of a chapel, and people are everywhere; in the galleries, in the aisles, in the communion rails, everywhere. On the pulpit-stairs some one has found room<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</SPAN></span> for a little child. Why, it is Daniel, and there is the kind clergyman standing near. See, the preacher has finished, and is coming down from the pulpit, he is lifting up the little child and is kissing him. Now, he has passed into the vestry, and the picture has gone. That, my young Oldham readers, was the opening of Manchester St. Chapel on Good Friday, 1790, when Mr. Wesley was nearly ninety years old.</p> <p>At Hull, Birmingham, Wednesbury, Chester, Manchester, Liverpool, all places where the Methodists had been most cruelly treated, Mr. Wesley and his followers were now most kindly welcomed. You remember how Mr. Wesley and his brother had been shut out of the churches, very few clergymen allowing them to preach in their pulpits. This, too, was all changed.</p> <p>Those of you who live in Hull will like to know that John Wesley, when he was eighty-three, was invited by the vicar to preach in your beautiful High Church. If any of you have not been inside—but surely all my Hull readers have—pay it a visit, and just fancy you see that bright-eyed, silver-haired old man, with a voice that had lost little of the strength of youth, preaching to the crowds that thronged the hallowed place. If those old grey walls could speak, we might know John Wesley's very words. He preached again at night, and though so old, was unwearied with his work. He went on to Beverley<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</SPAN></span> that same evening, and the next day travelled seventy-six miles, preached at Malton, Pocklington, and Swinefleet, and went to bed without feeling the least bit tired. Wonderful John Wesley! God-blest John Wesley!</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-176.png" width-obs="147" height-obs="145" alt="Bird" title="" /></div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-053.png" width-obs="540" height-obs="167" alt="Decoration" title="" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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