Fox's Book of Martyrs
Chapter XX
John Wesley was
born on the seventeenth of June, 1703, in Epworth
rectory, England, the fifteenth of nineteen children of Charles and Suzanna
Wesley. The father of Wesley was a preacher, and Wesley's mother was a
remarkable woman in wisdom and intelligence. She was a woman of deep piety and
brought her little ones into close contact with the Bible stories, telling them
from the tiles about the nursery fireplace. She also used to dress the children
in their best on the days when they were to have the privilege of learning
their alphabet as an introduction to the reading of the Holy Scriptures.
Young
Wesley was a gay and manly youth, fond of games and particularly of dancing. At
Oxford he was a leader, and during the latter part of his course there, was one of the founders of the "Holy Club,"
an organization of serious-minded students. His religious nature deepened
through study and experience, but it was not until several
years after he left the university and came under the influence of Luther's
writings that he felt that he had entered into the
full riches of the Gospel.
He
and his brother Charles were sent by the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel to Georgia, where both of them
developed their powers as preachers.
Upon
their passage they fell into the company of several
Moravian brethren, members of the association recently renewed by the labors of
Count Zinzendorf. It was noted by John Wesley in his
diary that, in a great tempest, when the English people on board lost all
self-possession, these Germans impressed him by their composure and entire
resignation to God. He also marked their humility under shameful treatment.
It
was on his return to England that he entered into
those deeper experiences and developed those marvelous powers as a popular
preacher which made him a national leader. He was associated at this time also
with George Whitefield, the tradition of whose marvelous eloquence has never
died.
What
he accomplished borders upon the incredible. Upon entering his eighty-fifth
year he thanked God that he was still almost as
vigorous as ever. He ascribed it, under God, to the fact that he had always
slept soundly, had risen for sixty years at four o'clock in the morning, and
for fifty years had preached every morning at five. Seldom in all his life did
he feel any pain, care, or anxiety. He preached twice each day, and often
thrice or four times. It has been estimated that he
traveled every year forty-five hundred English miles, mostly upon horseback.
The
successes won by Methodist preaching had to be gained
through a long series of years, and amid the most bitter persecutions. In nearly every part of England it was met
at the first by the mob with stonings and peltings,
with attempts at wounding and slaying. Only at times was there any interference
on the part of the civil power. The two Wesleys faced
all these dangers with amazing courage, and with a calmness equally astonishing. What was more irritating was the heaping up of
slander and abuse by the writers of the day. These books are now all forgotten.
Wesley
had been in his youth a high churchman and was always deeply
devoted to the Established Communion. When he found it necessary to
ordain preachers, the separation of his followers from the established body
became inevitable. The name "Methodist" soon attached to them,
because of the particular organizing power of their
leader and the ingenious methods that he applied.
The
Wesley fellowship, which after his death grew into the great Methodist Church, was characterized by an almost military perfection of organization.
The
entire management of his ever-growing denomination rested upon Wesley himself.
The annual conference, established in 1744, acquired a governing power only
after the death of Wesley. Charles Wesley rendered the society a service
incalculably great by his hymns. They introduced a new era in the hymnology of
the English Church. John Wesley apportioned his days to his work in leading the
Church, to studying (for he was an incessant reader), to traveling, and to
preaching.
Wesley
was untiring in his efforts to disseminate useful knowledge throughout his
denomination. He planned for the mental culture of his traveling preachers and
local exhorters, and for schools of instruction for the future teachers of the
Church. He himself prepared books for popular use upon universal history,
church history, and natural history. In this Wesley was an apostle of the
modern union of mental culture with Christian living. He published also the
best matured of his sermons and various theological works. These, both by their
depth and their penetration of thought, and by their purity and precision of
style, excite our admiration.
John
Wesley was of but ordinary stature, and yet of noble
presence. His features were very handsome even in old age. He had an open brow,
an eagle nose, a clear eye, and a fresh complexion. His manners were fine, and
in choice company with Christian people he enjoyed relaxation. Persistent,
laborious love for men's souls, steadfastness, and tranquillity of spirit were
his most prominent traits of character. Even in doctrinal controversies he
exhibited the greatest calmness. He was kind and very liberal. His industry has
been named already. In the last fifty-two years of his
life, it is estimated that he preached more than forty
thousand sermons.
Wesley
brought sinners to repentance throughout three kingdoms and over two
hemispheres. He was the bishop of such a diocese as neither the Eastern nor the
Western Church ever witnessed before. What is there in the circle of Christian
effort--foreign missions, home missions, Christian tracts and literature, field
preaching, circuit preaching, Bible readings, or aught else--which was not attempted by John Wesley, which was
not grasped by his mighty mind through the aid of his Divine Leader?
To
him it was granted to arouse the English
Church, when it had lost sight of Christ the Redeemer to a renewed
Christian life. By preaching the justifying and renewing of the soul through
belief upon Christ, he lifted many thousands of the
humbler classes of the English people from their exceeding ignorance and evil
habits, and made them earnest, faithful Christians. His untiring effort made
itself felt not in England alone, but in America and in continental Europe. Not
only the germs of almost all the existing zeal in
England on behalf of Christian truth and life are due to Methodism, but the
activity stirred up in other portions of Protestant Europe we must trace
indirectly, at least, to Wesley.
He
died in 1791 after a long life of tireless labor and unselfish service. His
fervent spirit and hearty brotherhood still survives
in the body that cherishes his name.
Chapter 21 - Persecutions of the French Protestants,
1814 and 1820