Who was John Wesley?

Samuel Wesley, the father of the celebrated John and Charles Wesley, was of Puritanical descent, and, marrying a daughter of Dr. Annesley-one of the ejected ministers-the mother came from an eminent Nonconformist family. When the revolution was effected, Mr. Wesley was the first who wrote in favour of that great national change, and dedicated his work to Queen Mary, who rewarded him with the rectory of Epworth, in Lincolnshire. Here, John, their second son, the founder of the Methodists, was born in June, 1703. After receiving an early education at Charterhouse school, he proceeded to Christchurch, Oxford, where his brother Charles, who was several years younger, joined him in 1727. From reading such books as Thomas a Kempis' "Imitation of Christ," and Jeremy Taylor's "Rules of Holy Living and Dying," they became extremely troubled about the salvation of their souls, but were dark as midnight as to the simple gospel-the way of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Having been baptized, and received the sacrament, they thought, as they had been taught, and as almost every one else believed at that time, that they could only hope to be saved by persisting in good works to the end of their days. This they tried, as Luther and Calvin had done before them; but, so far from being satisfied, they became every day more and more miserable. The God of all grace had touched their hearts, and created a void which nothing could fill but the knowledge of Christ in His Person and finished work.

Being clergymen of the church of England, they were privileged to preach in the churches this new gospel-immediate pardon and salvation through faith in Christ, without works of human merit. But this was too simple and too scriptural to be tolerated, and in a short time almost every pulpit in England was closed against them. Thus driven outside, they were compelled to preach in the open air, and thereby inaugurated open-air preaching which has since become so common. In Moorfields, on Kennington Common, and such like places they preached in town and country to audiences numbering from ten to twenty thousand. By the grace of God these "twin apostles" of England-Wesley and Whitefield-continued faithful and devoted to the end of their career.

They were used of God to rescue the English people from the depths of moral darkness, leading thousands, both in this country and in America, to the feet of Jesus. Men of all ranks acknowledged the force of their appeals-colliers and carpenters, ploughmen and philosophers; and many of the nobility yielded their hearts to the power of the truth. But their record is on high, and there the fruits of their labours shall abide throughout eternity. Whitefield died in America in 1770; and Wesley in London in 1791, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.*

After resigning his curacy, Mr. Darby made it abundantly evident that he had neither resigned the holy ministry of GOD'S Word nor the practical cure of souls; but like a famous John of the previous century had rather taken the whole world for his parish. In many striking respects his after-career resembles that of John Wesley, although their respective attitudes to the Church of England differed very widely. John Wesley could never conscientiously bring himself to separate from the Establishment; John Darby on the other hand, could not conscientiously bring himself to remain within her pale. In missionary zeal, earnestness, devotedness and thoroughgoing evangelism there was, however, much resemblance between these two giants. In Mr. Darby's case there was, along with the most enthusiastic and ardent evangelism, clear definite teaching as to the Church of GOD, the Body of CHRIST, the Coming of the LORD, prophecy, dispensational truth, the Word of GOD, the operations of the SPIRIT, with the calling and privileges of the Church. In the early days of his ministry; at Powerscourt Castle; and subsequently, in various centres of England, great attention and interest was aroused by this teaching. Sixty or seventy of the most devoted clergymen and some Dissenting ministers attended the meetings and enjoyed the truth together at one time, until they became alarmed as to whereunto this would grow. Then the inevitable reaction followed; clericalism was in jeopardy!

A. Before I answer, let me briefly state my judgment as to the history of Wesleyanism. The ruinous condition of the Church, a century ago, gave rise, through divine grace, to a remarkable movement. Some truly devoted men felt impelled to preach, and to call men to repentance. But instead of adhering to the word, certain of them framed for themselves a system of doctrines and discipline — doctrines which, while admitting salvation by Jesus, have put aside many of the most precious truths in connection with it — a discipline admirably suited, in a worldly point of view, like that of the Jesuits, for the aggrandisement of their society (for indeed it is a society, not a church), but in the highest degree injurious to the souls of men. I am perfectly convinced that Christians who are not members of their body, but who well know them, will not be found to confirm the testimony which the Wesleyans bear to themselves.

"I went to Georgia to convert the Indians," wrote John Wesley, "but I was converted myself." He was probably right. But how came he to know that he was converted at length? He based his assurance on certain feeling that came to London. This, he supposed, was the Spirit witnessing to him of his acceptance with God.

Wesley did not succeed as a missionary in the new colony, and after two years set sail for England. During the voyage home, he thought sadly of his misspent past. He wondered why it was, that after spending fifteen years in quest of peace, it should still seem as far from him as ever, after all that he had done. He records in his journal that on January 8th, 1738, whilst still on the ocean, he was convinced of the pride and unbelief of his heart, adding, "God save, or I perish!" On January 24th, he writes in his journal as follows: "I went to America to convert the Indians! But, oh, who shall convert me! Who, what is he that shall deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief? I can talk well — nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near, but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled."

He obtained peace at last under the following circumstances: "It was on Wednesday evening, May 24th, that the word of life was spoken by the voice of Christ to John Wesley. He had gone 'very unwillingly' to a meeting in Aldersgate Street, where someone read aloud Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. Wesley had not been fond of Luther; he had spoken of him as 'a wrong-headed German, who made too much of faith, instead of teaching that we are to be saved by faith and works together.' But now, as he listened to the one reading aloud, Wesley says, ' While he was describing the change God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, and in Christ alone, for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. I then testified openly to all there what I now felt first in my heart.'"

John Wesley was the subject of God’s dealing in a very manifest way when a little boy learning his alphabet. Whitefield, the prince of open-air preachers, was reached when a lad in his mother’s public-house—the “Blue Bell”—at Gloucester.

In this day of revival efforts, American and Welsh, Mr. W. Wale has reproduced for the first time since 1756 the journals of one more blessed thus than any since his day, as Wh. too led the way in preaching the simple gospel wherever he found an open door, but chiefly out of doors. By none was he more opposed and reviled than by his own fellow-churchmen, though he never left the Anglican Establishment and always claimed to be an English clergyman. It is clear however that he was regardless of the parochial system and the Canons, valuing chiefly the Articles, but in heart owning every soul that loved the Lord, and seeking the salvation of the lost wherever he found them, not only over Great Britain and Ireland, etc., but in America which he visited at least seven times when the voyage was incomparably more tedious and trying than of late years. He knew little beyond the glad tidings, and God's love both sovereign and in relationship, with its obligations and effects on the heart and the walk. But his devoted and self-denying zeal in that service of the Lord had no superior if equal in modern times. And his journals vividly reflect his heart and his labours, whatever the few drawbacks which one has no care to specify as is easily done by those who are immeasurably inferior in weightier matters.

Advantage is taken of a new issue to recommend this interesting work to every christian household. It is well that souls, especially the young, should know what grace has wrought in days gone by, and none the less because the present state of the Methodist Society so little answers to the simplicity and unworldly devotedness of the past. Here too the young will have the guiding help of one who has known how to combine a genial appreciation of what was of God in the movement with an adequate discernment of Wesley's grave defects, The publisher has brought it out at a very moderate price.