" A few days previously his brother Charles
had made the same happy experience, and this gave to their religious life
the warmth and fervor which, added to the zeal, industry and enthusiasm that
had always characterized them, made their labors of so much value to England,
and founded the denomination which has grown so rapidly in America,
still bearing the name once given in derision to the little group
of Oxford "Methodists".
But Wesley's mind was not one of those which can rest contentedly
upon one vital truth, he must needs run the whole gamut of emotion,
and resolve every point raised by himself or others
into a definite negative or affirmative in his own life.
Once settled in a position to his entire satisfaction,
he was as immovable as a mountain, and this was at once
the source of his power and his weakness, for thousands gladly followed
the resolute man, and found their own salvation therein,
while on the other hand the will which would never bend clashed hopelessly
with those who wished sometimes to take their turn in leading.
So he became an outcast from the Church of England, alienated from Ingham,
Whitefield, and other friends of his youth, estranged from the Moravians,
even while he was one of the greatest religious leaders
England has ever produced.
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