History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

Pen-pictures of Wesley agree substantially as to his physique. Whitehead, quoting from one of
the contemporary writers, says: "His stature was low; his habit of body in every period of life the
reverse of corpulent, and expressive of strict temperance and continual exercise; and,
notwithstanding his small size, his step was firm, and his appearance until within a few years of his
death vigorous and muscular. His face for an old man was one of the finest we have ever seen. A
clear, smooth forehead, an aquiline nose, an eye the brightest and most piercing that can be
conceived, and a freshness of complexion scarcely ever to be found at his years, and impressive of
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the most perfect health, conspired to render him a venerable and interesting figure." Haweis says,
"John Wesley was of inferior size, his visage marked with intelligence, singularly neat and plain in
his dress, a little cast in his eye, observable on particular occasions; upright, graceful, and remarkably
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active." Tyerman says, "In person Wesley was rather below the middle size, but beautifully
proportioned, without an atom of superfluous flesh, yet muscular and strong; with a forehead clear
and smooth, a bright and penetrating eye, and a lovely face, which retained the freshness of its
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complexion to the latest period of his life." He mentions himself that his standard weight through
life was 120 pounds. The late venerable John Chappell, one of the expelled Reformers of Baltimore,
and until his decease prominent in the Methodist Protestant Church, St. John's station, and who often
heard Wesley preach while he was a young Methodist in London, used to relate, that at the
communion, himself below the medium size, standing at the chancel, with Wesley standing inside
a step higher, the top of his head was on a line with Chappell's. Procerity is no bar to any other form
of greatness. The eulogistic tributes passed upon Wesley are exhaustive of language without
exaggeration. There is none finer than Whitehead's, from whom most other biographers copy, often
without credit, notably Moore. Stevens is elaborate, covering about sixty twelvemo pages of his
history. It is able and apologetic. Tyerman, for condensation and eloquence, is not surpassed: "He
stands alone; he had no successor; no one like him went before; no contemporary was a coequal.
There was a wholeness about the man, such as is rarely seen. His physique, his genius, his wit, his
penetration, his judgment, his memory, his beneficence, his religion, his diligence, his conversation,
his courteousness, his manners, and his dress made him as perfect as we ever expect man to be on
this side of heaven." The panegyric of Macaulay, the civilian, must close our allusions: "He was a
man whose eloquence and logical acuteness might have rendered him eminent in literature; whose
genius for government was not inferior to that of Richelieu; and who devoted all his powers, in
defiance of obloquy and derision, to what he sincerely considered the highest good of his species."
There are some lost chapters in Methodism. More recent investigators are recovering them to the
completeness of historic data. It is necessary to recover one of these chapters in connection with the
immediate obsequies of Wesley. After his decease the preachers of London, at a meeting called to
consider the situation and make preparation for the funeral, unanimously selected Dr. John
Whitehead to deliver the oration or sermon. Whitehead modestly refers to it in these words, found
in the genuine edition of his "Life of Wesley," page 281. "March 9 was the day appointed for his
interment. The preachers then in London, to my utter astonishment, insisted that I should deliver the
funeral discourse; and the executors afterward approved of the appointment. The intention was to
carry the corpse into the chapel, and place it in a raised situation before the pulpit during the service.
But the crowds which came to see the body while it lay in the coffin, both in the private house, and
especially in the chapel, the day before the funeral, were so great that his friends were apprehensive
of a tumult, if they should proceed on the plan first intended. It was therefore resolved the evening
before to bury him between five and six in the morning. Though the time of notice to his friends was