Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1912 — Relic of the Wesleys. [ARTICLE]

Relic of the Wesleys.

The Rev. J. H. Wlcksteed, vicar of Bexley, Kent, has presented to the Wesleyan Methodists of Gravesend and Dartford circuit a tree from the vicarage garden, a sapling of the old oak under whose branches John and Charles Wesley, with George Whitefield, often met in friendly conference. It Is believed that Charles Wesley composed some of bis hymns under its shadow, and John in his diary of September 22, 1740, writes: “I went to Mr. Hers (the vicar), at Bexley, where in the mornings and evenings I expounded the Sermon on the Mount and had leisure during the rest of the day for business of other kinds." Re was there again on Saturday, December 2, 1749, “and preached atxftt eleven.”—Church Family Newspaper.