In the step which at this time tended most
decidedly towards severance from the Church of
England — the appointment of lay preachers — Wesley
was not only a passive but a reluctant party. In any
other point of view this step was not important. John
Cennick, a layman, had expounded the Scriptures to
the colliers, and was encouraged by Wesley for doing
so ; and the interval between expounding and preaching
does not seem a large one. Slight as this transition
was, however, it passed over a boundary line, and one
which Wesley was reluctant to cross. The intelligence
received by him at Bristol in 1742 that Thomas Max-
field, one of his 'lay helpers,' had been preaching at
the Foundry, greatly disquieted him. He hurried to
London in so much perturbation that, on his arrival,
his mother perceived it in his countenance. ' What is
the matter.?' she asked. 'Thomas Maxfield has turned
preacher, I find,' was the abrupt reply. His mother
answered him with earnestness, 'John, you know what



XI.] CONSOLIDA TION OF METHODISM. 245

my sentiments have been. You cannot suspect me of
readily favouring anything of this kind. But take
care what you do with respect to that young man, for
he is as surely called to preach as you are.' Her mind,
perhaps, went back as she spoke to her own gatherings
in the kitchen at Epworth more than thirty years ago,
to the opposition which she had to encounter from
the curate and from her husband, and the earnestness
with which she had formerly pleaded re-awakened
within her. Hei" son yielded to her concluding words,
' Examine what are the fruits of his preaching, and
hear him yourself,' and his compliance ended in his
entire sanction of the measures.
