In the last ‘Reformer’, Mr. Chris Richards of the Protestant Alliance, wrote about John Wesley. Here, he continues the story.
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John Wesley was converted on 24 May 1738. Even though he was an ordained minister of the Church of England and had even been a missionary to the American Colonies, before this date he knew nothing of the peace that a genuine Christian conversion brings. On this day, he came to understand the text ‘Ye must be born again’: God had given him the gift of repentance and faith toward Jesus Christ. It is these elements of a turning from sin and faith towards Christ Jesus as the only Saviour of men that are necessary for our salvation.
Once Wesley had come to this Bible truth and seen that good works and religious activity cannot save anyone, he began to preach the Gospel message. Although he had no parish of his own, several vicars invited him to preach for them. Prior to his conversion, his preaching had been quite acceptable in these places, but now he was urging people to repentance, proclaiming that it was only Jesus Christ who could save. Then, as now, many thought that they could work for their salvation by doing good works and by being religious. Wesley, expounding the Bible, highlighted this terrible error that he had once believed himself, and found that where he was once welcomed as a preacher, he was now shut out. In all ages including today, many religious people want their religion but do not want to hear the message of the Bible that salvation is dependent upon Christ alone.
Wesley found that church after church refused to hear him. Interestingly, his old friend George Whitefield had also been shut out by the church and had begun to preach in the open air. He had seen God’s blessing upon these meetings and many people had been converted. He was, however, about to travel to America and was concerned that his ‘hedge preaching’ should continue. Thus Whitefield wrote to Wesley inviting him to carry on these meetings. Wesley in London was unsure whether to travel to Bristol to do so. He did not like the idea of preaching outside of a church building. Yet many of his formalistic religious ideas had been challenged by the Moravians, a German Christian group, and so reluctantly he travelled to Bristol. It was when he saw the miners from the Kingswood Colliery weeping over their sin as the preaching went forth, that he was convinced that this was a work of God.
As the meetings progressed and many were converted, Wesley experienced opposition from an unexpected quarter - the Bishop of Bristol. He told Wesley that he had no right to preach in Bristol. Wesley left the Bishop with these now famous words, ‘Thenceforth the world is my parish’.
In his lifetime, he travelled over 200,000 miles on horseback, plus many thousands more by carriage and boat. This in itself was an achievement in the 18th century, but all of these journeys had only one end in view: to take the Gospel to the people of the British Isles.
It was this desire to make the Gospel known that brought Wesley to Ottery in September 1776. His Journal reads: ‘I was desired to call at Ottery, a large town, eleven miles from Exeter. I preached in the market-house to abundance of people, who behaved with great decency’.
A well-behaved people was welcome since, during his many travels, he knew great opposition; mobs, usually stirred up by hostile clergy, attempted to break up his meetings. Stone throwing, a bull turned loose, fireworks and smoke bombs were just a few of the tactics employed. Undeterred, he continued preaching. Eventually, news of this hooliganism used by clergy and other opposers of the revival reached George III. He ordered magistrates to protect the revivalist for Wesley was just one of several mighty preachers of the Gospel that God had raised up at that time.
Just as those preachers in the revival were opposed, so those converted under their preaching often did not find a welcome in the formalistic churches. John Wesley never wanted to leave the Church of England, but his ‘Class Meetings’, where the converts were instructed in the Bible, slowly grew into established churches. At these weekly meetings, the new Christians found the Word of God plainly taught, prayer and the singing of hymns.
The hymn-singing of today’s churches has its roots in the Methodist meetings. When John and his brother Charles Wesley went to Bristol to continue the work begun by Whitefield, they found that the converted miners were unwelcome in the local churches. These miners could not read or write and to help them to grow in their new found faith, the ‘New Room’ was built, and hymns were written that contained the teaching of the Bible - the singing of these taught the people the doctrines of the Bible. Charles Wesley went on to become the leading hymn-writer of the age composing thousands of hymns, many of which are still sung today.
John Wesley died on 2 March, 1791. Before his death, he said to friends who had gathered around his bed, ‘The best of all is: God is with us’. To know the peace Wesley experienced in life and death, we must also experience the same saving faith, heeding the same message that Wesley undoubtedly made known when he visited Ottery: ‘Ye must be born again’.
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