Church History 11: John Wesley 1

John Wesley was the fifteenth child of a family with meager financial resources but intense devotion to duty. His first responsibility was to acquire a good education. When in 1720 he entered Oxford University, he already read Latin and Hebrew. In five years he became an instructor in Greek, and in seven, a secure member of the faculty. He later recalled that his hope of salvation was based upon "(1) not being so bad as other people, (2) having still a kindness for religion, (3) reading the Bible, going to church and saying my prayers."

His education opened new doors. Wesley had the talents to develop a career in law, medicine or theology. Of these, he chose theology. Having made that choice, he determined in his methodical manner to become a good person. To this end he made a study of devotional literature: Thomas ą Kempis, Jeremy Taylor, and William Law.

His method seemed to work: "I began to see that true religion was seated in the heart, and that God's law extended to all our thoughts as well as words and actions....I set apart an hour or two a day for religious retirement. I communicated every week; I watched against all sin, whether in word or deed...So that now doing so much and living so good a life I doubted not that I was a good Christian."

"By my continued endeavor to keep God's whole law inward and outward to the utmost of my power, I was persuaded that I should be accepted of Him, and that I was even then in a state of salvation."

Wesley served as a minister, returned to Oxford to earn his Master of Arts, and was again a parish minister for two years. Of this experience he reports, "I preached much, but saw no fruit of my labor. Indeed it could not be that I should, for I neither laid the foundation of repentance nor of believing the Gospel, taking it for granted that all to whom I preached were believers, and that many of them needed no repentance."

Back at Oxford, he "resolved to have no acquaintance by chance, but by choice, and to choose such only as I have reason to believe would help me on my way to heaven."

Meanwhile John's younger brother, Charles Wesley, had become an Oxford student. At first he resisted John's gloomy example: "What, would you have me to be a saint all at once?" But Charles became both a serious student and an attractive personality. Around him a small group of students willingly formed, to help each other become better Christians. Their chosen duties included taking Holy Communion each week and obeying all rules, of God, of the church, of the university. Their fellow students referred to them as the "Godly Club," "Bible Moths," and other names. But the name that stuck was the "Methodists." John Wesley joined this group, and became its leader.

The Methodists visited the sick, helped the poor, visited prisons and workhouses; they fasted every Wednesday and Friday; they drew up rules for all details of their lives. John developed an elaborate checklist to gauge his spiritual success. This included multiple tests of sincerity: "Have I prayed with fervour?" His spiritual thermometer specified the times of daily prayer as well as its intensity. Wesley also checked his daily performance on exactly nine points of practical benevolence.

Wesley seriously considered forming an even more strict society, one that would include observing Saturday as a Christian festival. But his motive was only his stern sense of duty. Wesley's religion included much self-denial, but no humor, and no joy. "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." [Proverbs 17:22] Wesley lacked a merry heart, and his broken spirit resulted in broken health.

With Paul in Romans 7:24, Wesley cried, "Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" But his faith would not allow him to accept the next verse. Wesley's answer was, "Death will deliver us! Death shall destroy at once the whole body of sin."

Six years of rigorous self discipline had failed in its purpose. Wesley was ready for a change. At this point he was introduced to General Oglethorpe, founder of the American colony of Georgia. The general needed a clergyman who would preach to both the settlers and the Indians. Wesley agreed to be that man. Then 32 years of age, he wrote, "My chief motive is the hope of saving my own soul. I hope to learn the true sense of the Gospel of Christ by preaching it to the heathen." Perhaps no missionary has ever chosen a stranger reason to cross the seas.

Wesley's experiment was brief, and a failure: "It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity; but what have I learned myself in the meantime? Why, what I the least of all suspected; that I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God."

During the four-month voyage Wesley had a striking experience with some Moravian fellow passengers. These followers of John Huss had left Bohemia for Germany to escape persecution, and were now on their way to America.

"In the midst of the Psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began amongst the English. The Germans calmly sang on. I asked one of them afterwards, 'Was you not afraid?' He answered, 'I thank God, no.' I asked, 'But were not your women and children afraid?' He replied mildly, 'No; our women and children are not afraid to die.'"

Wesley saw that his own religion had not protected him from an intense fear of death. The Moravians had what he himself lacked. On landing he presented himself to the head of the Moravian community, and asked for help. The pastor asked bluntly, "Do you know Jesus Christ?"

"I paused and said, 'I know He is the Saviour of the world.' 'True,' he replied; 'but do you know he has saved you?' I answered, 'I hope He has died to save me.' He only added, 'Do you know yourself?' I said, 'I do,' But I fear they were vain words."

Wesley was impressed that the Moravians lived lives as careful as his, yet their life was one of peace and joy. He envied their gladness, which he lacked.

Wesley recognized the New Testament doctrine of baptism by immersion, and enforced his conclusions on the new colony. Rules continued to dominate his mind. Among his admitted failures, he baptized an Indian child with two sponsors, rather then the three specified by his church. Wesley found a social distinction between those who wore shoes, and those who did not. So, for a time, he himself went barefoot.

But Wesley stirred up quarrels wherever he went. Governor Oglethorpe asked, "How is it that there is no love, no meekness, no true religion amongst the people; but instead of this, mere formal prayers?" The people saw in Wesley's sermons, satires upon particular people, and eventually declined to listen to him.

Rejected by his parishioners, his own spiritual life uncertain, Wesley returned to England in disgrace. There he again sought out the Moravians and attended their meetings. One night their leader was reading from Luther's preface to the book of Romans, and across two hundred years, Luther spoke to Wesley's heart:

"About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my 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."

Wesley's experience had finally brought him to the last verse of Romans chapter 7, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" and he was ready for the first verses of chapter 8: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death."

Bibliography:

Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A., eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, pp. 908-910, 1467, Oxford University Press, New York, 1990.

Fitchett, W. H., Wesley and His Century, Abingdon Press, New York, 1925.

The New Encyclopędia Britannica, 15th edition, vol. 8 pp. 70, 71, Chicago, 1991.

The New Encyclopędia Britannica, 15th edition, vol. 12 pp. 79, 585, Chicago, 1991.

The New Encyclopędia Britannica, 15th edition, vol. 26 pp. 258-260, Chicago, 1991.

White, E. G., The Great Controversy, pp. 253-264, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Boise, Idaho, 1950.

© 2001 R. Wresch, M.D