CHAPTER VII
PREPARATION FOR THE GREAT REVIVAL
WESLEY read prayers and expounded a portion of Scripture to
a large company at Deal before he set out for London. He reached
“Feversham” on the same evening. He now caught his
first glimpse of English life after his absence in America,
and of the need for a great revival of true religion in his
native land. “I here read prayers, and explained the Second
Lesson, to a few of those who were called Christians, but were,
indeed, more savage in their behaviour than the wildest Indians
I have yet met with.” He expected a cold reception from
Mr. Delamotte’s family at Blendon, but he no sooner mentioned
his name than their welcome constrained him to say, “Surely
God is in this place, and I knew it not!” His brother
Charles, who had been in England for fourteen months, had prepared
the way for him here. Mrs. Delamotte and her whole family had
been won over. She had been indignant with the Wesleys because
her son Charles had gone with them to Georgia, but some weeks
before Wesley’s visit she had acknowledged that she loved
her son too well. From that time her behaviour to Charles Wesley
was entirely changed.
In the evening of Friday, February 3rd, 1738, Wesley was again
in London. None of his friends knew of his return. When his
brother Charles was told, on the Friday afternoon,
that John had come back, he could not believe it till he saw
him. They met that night, when Charles learned the deplorable
state of the colony. Mr. Oglethorpe, who was in England, was
evidently annoyed by the unvarnished account which Wesley gave
to the Board of Management. The trustees themselves were surprised
to hear such news, and to learn how scanty the population was.
Wesley said that he had reason to believe that some of them
had not forgiven him for his statements. Mr. Oglethorpe told
Charles that his brother must take care, as there was a strong
spirit raised against him, and people said he had come over
to do mischief to the colony. Wesley’s sole purpose, of
course, was to help the settlers, and he was not the man to
hide any of the facts. In October the trustees removed Causton
from all his offices, and refused to accept his accounts as
correct.
More important events now claim attention. Among the reasons
to bless God which Wesley mentions in connection with his mission
to Georgia was his introduction to many members of the Moravian
Church at Hernhuth, and the fact that he had learned German,
Spanish, and Italian, so that his “passage was opened
to the writings of holy men” in those languages. The day
before he gave the trustees of Georgia an account of the colony,
he met, at the house of a Dutch merchant, Mr. Weinant, Peter
Bähler and two friends who had just landed from Germany. When
Wesley found that they had no friends in London, he secured
them lodgings near Mr. Hutton’s, in Westminster, where
he generally stayed whilst in London. From that time he lost
no opportunity of conversing with them. Böhler was twenty-five
years old. He had studied theology at the University of Jena,
and had just been ordained by Zinzendorf for work in Carolina.
On February 17th the Wesleys travelled to Oxford
with their new friend. Wesley talked much with him, but did
not understand his views, and was greatly puzzled when Böhler
said, “My brother, my brother, that philosophy of yours
must be purged away.” Böhler, in a letter to Count Zinzendorf,
gives his impressions of his new friends: “I travelled
with the two brothers, John and Charles Wesley, from London
to Oxford. The elder, John, is a good natured man; he knew he
did not properly believe on the Saviour, and was willing to
be taught. His brother, with whom you often conversed a year
ago, is at present very much distressed in his mind, but does
not know how he shall begin to be acquainted with the Saviour.
Our mode of believing in the Saviour is so easy to Englishmen
that they cannot reconcile themselves to it; if it were a little
more artful, they would much sooner find their way into it.”
Wesley spent a couple of days at Oxford, where he preached
at the Castle on Sunday to a numerous and serious congregation.
Then he returned to London. Ten days later he saw his mother
once more at Salisbury. He was just ready to start for Tiverton
to visit his eldest brother, when he received a message that
Charles was dying at Oxford. He set out without delay, but found,
to his great relief that the danger was past. By this means
he renewed his intercourse with Böhler, who was still at Oxford,
and had been at Charles Wesley’s side in his illness.
“By him,” he says, “(in the hand of the great
God), I was, on Sunday, the 5th” (March, 1738), “clearly
convinced of unbelief of the want of that faith whereby alone
we are saved.” Wesley immediately concluded that he was
unfit to preach. He consulted Böhler, who urged him to go on.
“But what can I preach?” said Wesley.
“Preach faith till you have it,” said his friend
“and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”
This sound advice Wesley followed. It is interesting to know
that the first person to whom he offered salvation by faith
was a prisoner who lay under sentence of death at the Castle.
Here, in the place to which his friend Morgan had introduced
him more than seven years before, he began his work as a preacher
of the righteousness of faith. The incident is the more remarkable
because Böhler had many times asked Wesley to speak to this
man, but he had refused because he was a zealous assertor of
the impossibility of a death-bed repentance. Wesley’s
prejudices were yielding at last.
A short journey to Manchester, which he took in the middle
of March with his friend Mr. Kinchin, Dean and Fellow of Corpus
Christi College, another Oxford Methodist, shows how carefully
he embraced every opportunity of doing good. All hearts seemed
to open to him and his friend. They had prayer at the inns,
and spoke to the servants as well as to those whom they met
on their journey, with the happiest effect. Peter Böhler had
returned from London when they again reached Oxford. He amazed
Wesley more and more by his description of the holiness and
happiness which are the fruits of living faith. Wesley began
to read the Greek Testament again that he might judge whether
this teaching was of God. He and Mr. Kinchin visited the condemned
prisoner. They prayed with him, first using several forms of
prayer, and “then in such words as were given” them
at the moment. The man, who had knelt down in great heaviness,
rose up after a time, saying eagerly, “I am now ready
to die. I know Christ has taken away my sins; and there is no
more condemnation for me.” Soon afterwards he died in
perfect peace, up to this time, in every religious
Society he visited, Wesley had been accustomed to use a collect
or two, then the Lord’s Prayer. Afterwards he expounded
a chapter in the New Testament, and concluded with three or
four collects and a psalm. On the Saturday after the scene in
the Castle, his heart was so full in a meeting of Mr. Fox’s
Society that he could not confine himself to the forms of prayer
generally used. “Neither do I purpose,” he adds,
“to be confined to them any more, but to pray indifferently,
with a form or without, as I may find suitable to different
occasions.” This marks a notable step in Wesley’s
preparation for his evangelistic work.
Before the end of April he was convinced that Böhler’s
views on the nature and fruits of faith were truly Scriptural.
As yet he could not understand how it could be instantaneous,
but, to his astonishment, the Acts of the Apostles showed that
nearly all the conversions there described were instantaneous.
He was ready to conclude that such wonders were only wrought
in the first ages of Christianity, but the testimony of several
living witnesses taught him that God still wrought thus in many
hearts. “Here ended my disputing,” he says; “
I could now only cry out, ‘Lord, help Thou my unbelief
! “ Wesley found his friends as much prejudiced against
instantaneous conversions as he himself had been. When he spoke
on the subject at Blendon, Charles Wesley was very angry, and
told him he did not know what mischief he had done by talking
thus. Both of the brothers refer to the conversation in their
journals. Charles says, “We sang, and fell into a dispute
whether conversion was gradual or instantaneous. My brother
was very positive for the latter, and very shocking: mentioned
some late instances of gross sinners believing in a moment.
I was much offended at his worse than unedifying discourse.
Mrs. Delamotte left us abruptly. I stayed, and
insisted, a man need not know when first he had faith. His obstinacy
in favouring the contrary opinion drove me at last out of the
room. Mr. Broughton was only not so much scandalised as myself.”
Wesley had struggled too long with his own doubts to be impatient
with those who had not yet reached the same position as himself.
He adds to his own account of his brother’s indignation
at this discussion the significant words, “And, indeed,
it did please God then to kindle a fire, which, I trust, shall
never be extinguished.”
Wesley was recalled from Oxford on the 1st of May by the return
of his brother’s illness. He found Charles at the house
of James Hutton, near Temple Bar. Here, on the same evening,
a little Society, formed by the advice of Böhler, met for the
first time. It was afterwards transferred to Fetter Lane. The
Wesleys were closely associated with it until the excesses
of the Moravian teachers compelled them to withdraw. The friends
agreed to meet every week, to form themselves into bands of
five to ten members, and to speak freely to each other about
their religious life. The bands were to have a general meeting
every Wednesday evening, and a lovefeast once a month on a Sunday
evening from seven to ten. All who wished to join the Society
were to remain on trial for two months. Two days after the Society
was formed Charles Wesley was convinced by a long and particular
conversation with Böhler of the true nature of evangelical faith.
Next day this friend, who had been so greatly blessed to the
brothers, embarked for Carolina. Wesley says, "Oh, what
a work hath God begun since his coming into England, such an
one as shall never come to an end till heaven and earth pass
away !"
The brothers were now resolutely seeking after this living
faith. Their friend Mr. Stonehouse, the Vicar of
Islington, was also convinced of the truth. On Whit-Sunday,
rather more than a fortnight after Böhler left London, Charles
Wesley found the joy and peace he sought. He was suffering from
another attack of his pleurisy. Just as he was . about to remove
from James Hutton’s to his father’s, Mr. Bray, “a
poor, ignorant mechanic,” who knew nothing but Christ,
came to see him. Charles felt that he was sent to supply Bohler's
place, and removed to his house in Little Britain instead of
going to Westminster. Here he found peace. John Wesley and some
friends had visited him on the morning of Whit-Sunday, and had
sung a hymn to the Holy Ghost. Afterwards John went to hear
Dr. Heylyn, the popular Rector of St. Mary-ic-Strand. He was
well known to the Doctor, in concert with whom it had been arranged
that he should prepare an edition of A Kempis. His friend and
counsellor, William Law, had also been Heylyn’s curate
in the days when he was such “a gay parson that Dr. Heylyn
said his book” (“ The Serious Call“) “would
have been better if he had travelled that way himself.”
* Wesley assisted the Doctor with the Communion, as his curate
was taken ill in the church. After this service he heard the
surprising news that his brother had found rest to his soul.
Wesley remained in much heaviness until the following Wednesday,
May 24th, 1738. At five that morning he opened his Testament
on the words, “There are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises.” In the afternoon some one asked
him to go to St. Paul’s. The anthem was, “Out of
the deep have I called unto Thee, 0 Lord. . . . 0 Israel, trust
in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him
is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all
his sins.”
That evening he went very unwillingly to a Society in Aldersgate
Street where some one was reading Luther’s preface to
the Epistle to the Romans. “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 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
at once began to pray earnestly for his enemies, and publicly
testified to all present what he now felt. He was much tempted
when he returned home, but when he prayed the temptations fled.
He soon found how different they were from his former struggles.
Then he was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now he was always
conqueror.
Charles Wesley’s journal gives us a happy description
of this memorable night: “Towards ten, my brother was
brought in triumph by a troop of our friends, and declared,
‘I believe.’ We sang the hymn with great joy, and
parted with prayer.” “The hymn” was one Charles
Wesley had composed the previous day on his own conversion.
He had laid it aside for fear of pride, but resumed it when
Mr. Bray encouraged him “to proceed, in spite of Satan.”
Now the brothers were able to sing it together.
Oh, how shall I the goodness tell,
Father, which Thou to me hast showed?
That I, a child of wrath and hell,
I should be called a child of God,
Should know, should feel, my sins forgiven,
Blest with this antepast of heaven! *
The position which Wesley now took up gave no small scandal
to some of his old friends. The Huttons, of Westminster,
and his brother Samuel were especially troubled. Mrs. Hutton
wrote to Samuel Wesley at Tiverton within a fortnight after
the memorable scene at Aldersgate Street. Whilst her husband
was reading a sermon of Bishop Blackall’s to one of the
religious Societies of the time assembled in his study, Wesley
stood up and startled them by the statement that five days before
he was not a Christian. Mr. Hutton answered, “Have a care,
Mr. Wesley, how you despise the benefits received by the two
Sacraments.” Mrs. Hutton was not in the study at the time.
Wesley, however, repeated his statement in the parlour, where
they met for supper. Mrs. Hutton then said, “If you have
not been a Christian ever since I knew you, you have been a
great hypocrite, for you made us all believe that you were one.”
Wesley explained his meaning. “When we renounce everything
but faith and get into Christ, then, and not till then, have
we any reason to believe that we are Christians.” The
Huttons were in the parlour, with their son and daughter, their
niece, two or three ladies who boarded at the house, two or
three of Wesley’s “deluded followers,” and
two or three gentlemen who knew Wesley, but did not yet share
“his notions.” Mrs. Hutton dreaded the effect on
her own children, who reverenced Wesley so greatly. She calls
him “my son’s pope.”
Though Wesley had now attained to the righteousness of faith,
his mind was not fully at rest. He was often in heaviness through
manifold temptation, and was not a little perplexed by the conflicting
counsels of his friends. At last he made up his mind to visit
the Moravian settlement at Hernhuth. He had fully resolved on
this journey before he left Georgia, and had written to Count
Zinzendorf. He now saw that the time for his visit was come.
“My weak mind could not bear to be thus sawn asunder.
And I hoped the conversing with those holy men,
who were themselves living witnesses of the full power of faith,
and yet able to bear with those that are weak, would be a means,
under God, of so establishing my soul, that I might go on from
faith to faith, and ‘from strength to strength.”
Three weeks after his “conversion” he sailed from
Gravesend to Rotterdam.
Before describing this interesting visit it is necessary to
speak of Wesley’s correspondence with his friend and adviser
William Law. He met with Law’s “Christian Perfection”
soon after he became Fellow of Lincoln College, and when the
“Serious Call” was published it exercised a powerful
influence on his mind. He had already determined to live a religious
life. He was much offended by several things in Law’s
books, and “had objections to almost every page,”
* but they convinced him more than ever of the exceeding height,
breadth, and depth of the law of God. The light flowed in upon
his soul so mightily that everything appeared in a new aspect,
and he determined to keep all the commandments of God.t He paid
several visits to Mr. Law at Putney, and in 1734 consulted him
about one of his pupils, who had lost all relish for religious
duties.
After Peter BOhler left London Wesley wrote to Mr. Law. He
had been trying for twelve years to order his life according
to the “Serious Call ;“ for two years he had regularly
preached after the model of Law’s books. Now that the
light had come, he naturally remembered his master. On May
14th, 1738, he wrote a letter in which he explained to Mr. Law
how his teaching had broken down in practice. Both he and his
hearers acknowledged that the Law was wonderful, but all were
convinced that it was impossible to make it the rule of life.
Wesley adds, “Under this heavy yoke I might have groaned
till death had not a holy man, to whom God lately directed me,
upon my complaining thereof; answered at once, ‘Believe,
and thou shalt be saved.” He inquires why Mr. Law did
not give him this advice, and beseeches him to consider whether
the true reason was not that he did not possess this faith himself:
The last paragraph of the letter might have been softened with
advantage, but Wesley would not have felt justified without
speaking plainly. “Once more, sir, let me beg you to consider
whether your extreme roughness and morose and sour behaviour,
at least on many occasions, can possibly be the fruit of a living
faith in Christ? If not, may the God of peace and love fill
up what is yet wanting in you.” Mr. Overton, Law’s
biographer, says that “there was an asperity of manner,
a curtness of expression, an impatience of everything that appeared
to him absurd and unreasonable,. . . which made most men with
whom he came into contact rather afraid of him.” So much
for the truth and meaning of the charge. There is nothing in
this letter that is inconsistent with Wesley’s high esteem
for the man who had so greatly influenced his religious life
and character. The utmost that can be said is that it is very
plain speaking. But that was characteristic of Wesley, and surely
twelve years of bondage to form may justify such freedom, quite
apart from the more important fact that Wesley had learned the
way of faith, to which he feared that his friend was still a
stranger.
Law replied on May 19th. He reminds Wesley that he himself
had prepared a translation of A Kempis, and asks
that the fault of not leading him to faith may be divided between
them, He satisfactorily explains his conversation with Bohler,
to which Wesley had referred. He reminds Wesley that he had
put the “Theologia Ger manica” into his hands, and
if that book did not plainly lead to Christ, he “was content
to know as little of Christianity” as Wesley was pleased
to believe. This letter has been described as a triumphant answer,
which clearly proves that Wesley was no match for his distinguished
correspondent. But whatever Law may have felt about Christianity,
he had not guided the Wesleys into the way of faith. They were
groaning under the yoke till BOhler was sent to lead them into
peace. That fact remains, and Law’s letter did not shake
Wesley’s position. Wesley was far too able a reasoner
to lose sight of the essential point. Hence his answer to Mr.
Law, which must be acknowledged to be a complete reply. He carefully
separates all extraneous questions, and quietly holds Mr. Law
to the main issue, that he had not done anything to lead him
to grasp that great truth “He is our propitiation, through
faith in His blood.” This letter is so important that
.a facsimile is given of the draft copy which afterwards came
into the hands of the Rev. Henry Moore. The corrections show
with what care Wesley prepared his reply.
Mr. Law wrote another letter, but it calls for no special comment.
Law protested against any attempt to make him responsible for
defects in Wesley’s knowledge. His impression of Wesley
is interesting. “You seemed to me to be of a very inquisitive
nature, and much inclined to meditation.” For this reason
he had put the “Theologia Germanica”
into his hands. Charles Wesley’s journal for 1739 describes
an interesting visit which he paid to Law, with his friend John
Bray. Law was sorry that the Methodists had not been dispersed
into livings where they might have leavened the Church. Charles
Wesley told him his experience. “‘Then am I,’
said he, ‘far below you (if you are right), not worthy
to bear your shoes.’ He agreed to our notion of faith,
but would have it that all men held it; was fully against the
laymen’s expounding, as the very worst thing, both for
themselves and others. I told him he was my schoolmaster to
bring me to Christ; but the reason why I did not come sooner
to Him was my seeking to be sanctified before I was justified.
. . . Joy in the Holy Ghost, he told us, was the most dangerous
thing God could give. I replied, ‘But cannot God guard
His own gifts?’ He often disclaimed advising, ‘seeing
we had the Spirit of God,’ but mended upon our hands,
and at last came almost quite over.” This is a pleasant
sequel to the correspondence.
In 1756 Wesley
published “An Extract of a Letter to the Rev. Mr. Law.”
This was occasioned by some of Law’s later writings, which
Wesley thought erroneous and likely to lead many astray. This
has been described as an “angry pamphlet,” as his
first letter to Law has been called an “angry letter.”t
Anger is far enough from both. They are calm and dispassionate
throughout. Law describes it as “a juvenile composition
of emptiness and pertness, below the character of any man who
had been serious in religion but half a month.” The pamphlet
can be found in Wesley’s Works,t and every one may judge
how far these strictures are deserved. Wesley quietly comments
on various passages from Law’s writings. “I have
now, sir, delivered my own soul; and I have used great plainness
of speech, such as I could not have prevailed on myself to
use to one whom I so much respect on any other occasion.”
This is a fair description of a calm, well-reasoned treatise,
which, notwithstanding Law’s strictures on its emptiness
and pertness, clearly shows what a blow that eminent writer
had struck at the roots of all vital Christianity by his perilous
Mysticism. Dr. Byrom, Law’s devout disciple, who was also
the friend of Wesley, notes in his journal, that he urged Wesley
“to repent of that wicked letter.” Wesley stayed
with his old friend a considerable time, and talked very freely
with him, but Byrom was only able to prevail upon him to say
that if he published a second edition of the letter, “he
would soften some expressions in it.” Two years later,
in April, 1761, when Wesley was again in Manchester, Byrom returned
to the subject, but could not bring Wesley to say anything more
about this tract than he did on his previous visit. He added,
“I do not treat him” (Law) “with contempt,
as he does me.” Mr. Overton t does ample justice to Wesley’s
position in this publication. He says, “The letter was
not ‘wicked,’ nor ‘unchristian,’ nor
‘ungentlemanly,’ nor did it deserve the entire obliteration
which Byrom suggested. The question with him would be, Is such
teaching likely to do my people practical harm? And remembering
that he had seen what had been the practical effect of the sort
of diluted Mysticism of the London Moravians upon his people,
we can hardly wonder that he concluded that arm
would be done. Hence this well-meant, if not very judicious
attempt to counteract the evil.”
Wesley had
taught his people to read Law’s “Serious Call “and
his “Christian Perfection.” He often referred to
Law in the highest terms, as “that strong and elegant
writer,” “that great man,” etc. In his sermon
“On a Single Eye,” he spoke of the “Serious
Call” as “a treatise which will hardly be excelled,
if it be equalled, in the English tongue, either for beauty
of expression or for justness and depth of thought.” These
words were spoken only eighteen months before Wesley’s
death. His brother Charles used to call Law “our John
the Baptist.” He shut the brothers up under “the
law of commandments contained in ordinances” till they
groaned for deliverance. Many painful years might have been
spared them had he acted the part of Peter BOhler, and led them
to rest on the atonement of Christ for salvation. The Wesleys
had a strong case against him in this respect, and John Wesley
stated it fairly, with a sincere desire for the best interests
of a man whom he never ceased to love and honour. His pamphlet
supplied the people whom Wesley had taught to read his earlier
books with a much-needed antidote to Law’s later views.
Wesley’s
visit to the Moravian settlement of Hernhuth, on the borders
of Bohemia, in 1738 gave him confidence in the teaching by which
he had gained peace of mind and heart. Continental travelling
was not very pleasant in those days. At Goudart several inns
refused to entertain the party. With much difficulty they “at
last found one, where they did us the favour to take our money
for some meat and drink and the use of two or three bad beds.”
Ingham, Wesley’s companion in Georgia, was with him. There
were three other English travellers and three Germans. At Frankfort
Wesley had a pleasant interview with Peter BOhler’s father.
At Marienborn he found Count Zinzendorf, who had hired a large
house, where about ninety people of different nationalities
lived together. Wesley lodged with one of the members of this
community a mile from Marienborn. He had come to seek living
proofs of the power of faith; people saved from inward and outward
sin by “the love of God shed abroad in their hearts,”
and from all doubt and fear by the abiding witness of “the
Holy Ghost given unto them.” These witnesses he now constantly
met with. He usually spent the day in talking with those who
could either speak Latin or English, as he could not converse
easily in German. He stayed a fortnight, heard Zinzendorf preach,
and attended a conference where the Count spoke largely on justification
and its fruits.
On August
1st, after a journey which illustrates the annoyances to which
travellers on the Continent were exposed in those days, Wesley
reached the Moravian settlement. Hernhuth lay about thirty miles
from Dresden, on the border of Bohemia. About a hundred houses
stood on some rising ground, with high hills at a distance.
There were evergreen woods on two sides, gardens and cornfields
on the others. The settlement was on the highway from Zittau
to Löbau. The Orphan House stood in the middle of the one long
street, an apothecary’s shop below, a chapel, which would
seat about six hundred people, above. At a small distance from
either end of the Orphan House ran a row of houses, forming
two squares. The Count’s house was a small plain building,
like the rest, with a large garden, in which vegetables and
fruit were grown for the common use.
Wesley and
his friends had a convenient lodging assigned them in the house
for strangers. He found a Mr. Hermsdorf, whom he had often talked
with in Georgia; and this friend did everything
in his power to make the visit useful and agreeable. Wesley
zealously attended public services, lovefeasts, and conferences.
Christian David, the founder of the Church at Hernhuth, came
two days after Wesley reached the place. He had been converted
from Popery, and had preached far and wide throughout Moravia,
till his name was a household word. When persecution arose his
converts found a retreat at Hernhuth. David was only a carpenter,
but he was a man of great devotion and spiritual insight. Wesley
heard him preach four times. Each time he chose just the topic
that the English visitor would have desired him to choose. The
abstract of these discourses in the journals shows with what
care Wesley weighed his teaching. Christian David gave him a
clear and full account of his own life and of the founding of
the settlement at Hernhuth. These particulars, with the experience
of other members of the community and a description of its discipline
and constitution, will be found at length in Wesley’s
second journal. He was greatly refreshed in spirit by his sojourn
at Marienborn and Hernhuth. So many living witnesses to the
reality of saving faith inspired him with confidence. He could
doubt no more. “I would gladly have spent my life here,”
be says; “but my Master calling me to labour in another
part of His vineyard, on Monday, 14th, I was constrained to
take my leave of this happy place; Martin DOber, and a few others
of the brethren, walking with us about an hour. Oh, when shall
THIS Christianity cover the earth, as the ‘waters cover
the sea’?”
Wesley reached
London on Saturday night, September 16th, 1738, a month after
he left Hernhuth. He had been absent from England three months.
On Sunday he says, “I began to declare in my own country
the glad tidings of salvation, preaching three
times, and afterwards expounding the Scripture to a large company
in the Minories.” This was at the house of Mr. Sims, where
Charles Wesley had preached the two previous Sunday evenings,
the first time to two hundred, and the next to three hundred
hearers. The brothers met each other on the night of John’s
arrival. “We took sweet counsel together,” Charles
says, “comparing our experiences.” Next night also
he writes, “My brother entertained us with his Moravian
experiences.” Charles also had much to tell. Mrs. Delamotte
and her son William, who had been greatly prejudiced against
the new teaching, had now received it to their own salvation.
He was able to speak of Jack Delamotte, the first convert of
the hymnology of the revival. In singing “Who for me,
for me, hast died,” he had found the words sink into his
soul, and could have sung for ever, being full of delight and
joy. Charles returned from Blendon in June, rejoicing that
seven souls had been led to Christ by his ministry. His visits
to Newgate and the hour spent under the gallows at Tyburn, which
he describes as the most blessed hour of his life, all showed
John what a work God had already begun. Nor was he without a
share in the harvest. At Blendon, whilst Charles was reading
his brother’s sermon on faith, the gardener found that
blessing. Next evening, when he read it again at the house of
Mr. Piers, the Vicar of Bexley, “God set His seal to the
truth of it, by sending His Spirit upon Mr. Searl and a maidservant,
purifying their hearts by faith.” Such facts show how
the brothers must have rejoiced together. John had come from
Germany, laden with testimonies to the power of grace. Charles
had been reaping in English homes and in Englisn prisons the
success which showed that the fields were White already to harvest.
The next six
months were spent between London and Oxford, with one visit
to Bristol. Wesley preached in all churches that were open to
him, and in various “Societies.” He visited Newgate
and the Castle and city prisons at Oxford. He lost no opportunity
of doing good. The journals show that Wesley’s mind was
not yet fully established in the faith. Charles Delamotte, his
old companion in Georgia, troubled him not a little. He stayed
with Wesley at Oxford four or five days, and told his friend
that he was still trusting in his own works, and did not believe
in Christ. Wesley begged of God an answer of peace, and opened
on those words, “As many as walk according to this rule,
peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”
On the threshold
of the Great Revival, a few words may be devoted to its special
teaching. Throughout life Wesley was faithful to all the doctrines
of the Reformation and the English Church. Repentance for sin,
justification by faith, and holiness of heart and life were
the constant themes of his ministry and his writings. His long
bondage to doubt made him careful to show the way of acceptance.
The doctrine of assurance, on which he laid such stress, appears
in an alluring light in his brother’s hymns and in his
own sermons. Wesley rendered inestimable service by bringing
out into clear Light the blessed truth that no Christian need
walk in darkness, but may rejoice in the assurance of acceptance
with God. Entire sanctification was set in its proper light
as the goal towards which every Christian should press. Wesley
fixed no time and prescribed no methods for this work. He was
content to urge his people to grow in grace, and to strive to
gain all tne mind that was in Christ.
The opening
paragraphs of his “Earnest Appeal to Men )f Reason and
Religion” are perhaps the finest epitome
of the ruling purpose of the Great Revival. The lifeless, formal
religion of the time was a sad contrast to that religion of
love which they had found. The love of God and all mankind “we
believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy
for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries
and vices of men. Wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness
going hand in hand. There is humbleness of mind, gentleness,
long-suffering, the whole image of God, and at the same time
a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable
and full of glory. . . . This religion we long to see established
in the world, a religion of love, and joy, and peace, , having
its seat in the inmost soul, but ever showing itself by its
fruits, continually springing forth, not only in all innocence
(for love worketh no ill to his neighbour), but likewise in
every kind of beneficence, spreading virtue and happiness all
around it.” Wesley then shows how he and his friends had
long wandered in darkness, having no man to guide them into
“the straight way to the religion of love, even by faith.”
The blessed change it had wrought in their own souls gave them
confidence in urging all to seek the same joy. “By this
faith we are saved from all uneasiness of mind, from the anguish
of a wounded spirit, from discontent, from fear and sorrow of
heart, and from that inexpressible listlessness and weariness,
both of the world and ourselves, which we had so helplessly
laboured under for many years, especially when we were out of
the hurry of the world and sunk into calm reflection. In this
we find that love of God and of all mankind which we had elsewhere
sought in vain. This, we know and feel, and therefore cannot
but declare, saves every one that partakes of it both from sin
and misery, from every unhappy and every unholy temper.”
