As

man were at first quite cordial. Wesley put it, a few persons in London in the beginning asked for his spiritual assistance and that he would advise and pray with them. In various parts of the kingdom the same thing was done by others, and they increased everywhere.

The desire [he said, when questioned on the subject in his later years] was on their part, not on mine: my desire was to live and die in retirement; but I did not see that I could refuse them my help, and be guiltless before God. Here commenced my power; namely, a power to appoint when, where, and how they should meet, and to remove those whose life showed that they had no desire to flee from the wrath to come. And this power remained the same, whether the people meeting together were twelve, twelve hundred, or twelve thousand.

The formation of these local societies preceded that of the class meeting, which is usually and with reason regarded as so distinctive a feature of Methodism. But this institution was, to all seeming, the outgrowth of circumstance, and cer

tainly not of any cut-and-dried scheme which had built itself up in Wesley's mind. As we have seen, the foundation of the first Methodist preaching-house was laid at Bristol in May, 1739. Wesley had made himself responsible for the expenses of the building. When it was built, the money available fell short of the liabilities. Wesley consulted with the Bristol society about it. A member proposed that every person in the society should contribute a penny a week. When it was objected that some members were too poor to make even so small a contribution, the gentleman responsible for the first suggestion said :

Put eleven of the poorest with me, and if they can give anything, well, I will call on them weekly; and, if they can give nothing, I will give for them as well as for myself. And each of you call upon eleven of your neighbours weekly, receive what they give, and make up what is wanting

This proposal being agreed, each division of the society, for the purposes of

this financial collection, became known as a class, and the collector as the leader of it. Wesley saw immediately to what use the arrangement might be turned. He therefore advised the leaders not only to collect the money, but to inquire carefully into the behaviour of each contributor. From this it was not a long step to the class meeting weekly, under the leader, to relate experiences, and be consoled, rebuked, or exhorted by him. Seeing this system work so well in Bristol, Wesley introduced it everywhere, and gradually it assumed a more or less stereotyped form, which has existed to the present day. It may be roughly described thus: the leader has a class paper, upon which he marks, opposite to the name of each member, upon every day of meeting, whether the person has attended or not; and, if absent, whether his absence was owing to distance of abode, business, sickness, or neglect. Every member has a printed

class ticket, with a text of Scripture upon it, and a letter. These tickets must be renewed every quarter, the text being changed, and the letter also, till all the alphabet has been gone through; and then it begins again. One shilling is paid by every member upon receiving a new ticket, and no person without a proper ticket is considered a member of the society. These were later regulations; but the main system of finance and inspection, for which the class meetings provide, was established at this time, in consequence of the debt incurred for the first meeting-house.

As to the early Methodist preachers, who have been treated of by Southey, under the heading of "Wesley's lay coadjutors," they, like the local societies and the class meeting, were the outcome of events. Wesley did not like the notion of appointing preachers at first. He limited their functions for a time to the expounding of Scripture.

But he found that in his absence his societies were liable to fall away, if there was no one to look after them. Still, Wesley's action in the matter helped forward the separatist tendency of the slowly developing sect. Referring to the English Establishment, he writes:

It is true, in some things we vary from the rules of our Church, but no further than we apprehend is our bounden duty. It is from a full conviction of this that we preach abroad, use extemporary prayer, form those who appear to be awakened into societies, and permit laymen, whom we believe God has called, to preach. I say permit, because we ourselves have hitherto viewed it in no other light.

When the charge of ignorance was made against his preachers, Wesley knew how to express himself trenchantly in their defence:

In the one thing they profess to know [he wrote] they are not ignorant men. I trust there is not one of them who is not able to go through such an examination in substantial, practical,