of the noble band of itinerating preachers thus
called into the active exercise of their spiritual gifts was David
Taylor, a servant in Lord Huntingdon's household, who did much fruitful
evangelistic work in the villages surrounding Donnington Park. It was
this man who stood by John Wesley's side when the drunken curate of
Epworth refused him admission to what had been his father's pulpit, and
who announced to the congregation as they left the church that in the
afternoon Wesley would preach in the graveyard. And there that same
afternoon Wesley, standing upon his father's tombstone, preached to a
congregation, the like of which Epworth had never seen before, the first
of a series of sermons that afterwards became famous.

Having thus aided one of the brothers during a critical administrative
stage, Lady Huntingdon shortly afterwards was of great service to the
other in a crisis of spiritual experience. Soon after the organisation
of the first Methodist Society, the "still" heresy developed among the
Moravian members of the Fetter Lane Chapel. This was the view, "that
believers had nothing to do with ordinances--were not subject to
them--and ought to be _still_; that they ought to leave off the means of
grace, and not go to church; not to communicate; not to search the
Scriptures; not to use private prayer till they had living faith; and to
be _still_ till they had it." [1] Wesley used all his influence and all
his persuasive power to counteract these opinions, but without avail. At
length he decided to sever all connection with those who insisted upon
acting in accordance with them, and removed Methodism to the Foundry.
Charles Wesley at first went cordially with his brother, but at a later
date he ceased attending the Foundry, and manifested signs of a desire
to return to Fetter Lane. Lady Huntingdon, for whose views he
entertained feelings of the deepest respect, remonstrated with him, and
in conjunction with John Wesley's efforts kept him from a step that
might have proved fatal to his further usefulness. In a letter written
to John Wesley in October, 1741, Lady Huntingdon writes: "Since you left
us the _still ones_ are not without their attacks. I fear much more for
your brother than for myself, as the conquest of the one would be
nothing to the other.... I comfort myself very much that you will
approve a step with respect to them your brother and I have taken. No
less than his declaring open war with them.... Your