John Wesley

John Wesley – A Brief Biography

Today's story is about John Wesley. This story is particularly intertwined with the story we heard a couple of months ago about a man by the name of George Whitfield, These two men lived at the same time, they were good friends and they did also work together. But John Wesley has his own story.

Now, before we go into the story, it's important to understand something of the context of England during the 1700's. This was a particularly dark time for the UK, and for England. Not only was there a massive class divide (the rich were very rich, and the poor had absolutely no hope in the world, they were treated like a commodity, a resource that would make money for the rich - the class divide was huge) but also, it was impossible for people to go up in the world - if you were poor, that is where you lived and died.

But during the 1700's, there was one something else that impacted England a lot, and that was the production of gin. Gin is, of course, alcoholic, a liquor which was very potent and it became cheaper than beer. So during this time, in the 1700's, there was a huge amount of social unrest and many problems because of the production of gin which was totally out of control. Of course, after a while, the government tried to put laws in place, but there was much damage done to society. The impact on the poor was because there was so much drunkenness in England that children were often completely neglected. Newborns were left in the streets. People lost jobs. So much money was spent on alcohol and there was much crime and violence across England during this time.

Now, just across the channel in France, there was similar unrest, and there were a lot of problems that resulted in a huge revolution. England was headed in the same direction and historians actually say that it was this man, John Wesley, who saved England from a revolution.

So we begin in Epworth, which is in Lincolnshire. This is where John Wesley was born. He was born to a clergyman by the name of Samuel Wesley and his wife, Susanna. Now Samuel was quite disliked as a rector at the time and perhaps the event that follows was not entirely accidental - we don't know.

One night the family woke to find that their house was on fire. It was the 11 year old daughter who had woken when a piece of the roof had fallen on her bed and set it on fire. She had alerted the family, the father had been woken, who woke the mother who went and got the older children, and the father ran up the stairs to the nursery, called the maid, the maid grabbed baby Charles who was just in the cot, got the other children up, and they ran out of the house tumbling out the door. And Samuel looked at his children and said, "Where's John?" One child had been left in that home. So Samuel ran back into the house. Little five year old John had been asleep through all that confusion and chaos, and he'd been left on his bed.

Samuel had ran back in, but the stairway up to the nursery had caught fire, and he ran outside again, fell on his knees, and committed John's soul to God. Meanwhile, little John had woken up, and he'd run to the door and was met by a wall of flames and then he had run to the window, he had undone the latch, he had called out of the window, but no one could see through all the smoke haze, until a neighbor heard something, and saw this little figure at the window, and called for a ladder. Another man at the time said, "No time for a ladder! Quick, just jump on my shoulders." So these two men holding each other like this reached up and grabbed five year old John and they tumbled to the ground.

Samuel and Susanna watched as their house, all their possessions, his beloved book collection, and all the sermons he had written, went up in smoke, and Samuel said, "I am a rich man. All my children are alive." Susanna Wesley felt that the Lord had preserved her little boy, John, perhaps for an important reason. John Wesley was the 15th child of 19 children, but in those days, with the infant mortality as it was, only 10 of those children survived. Susanna lost two sets of twins, along with five other children who didn't survive through childhood.

But every child she had Susanna saw as a gift from God. She said, "My children are as a talent committed to me under the trust of our great Lord." Now Susanna herself was a fascinating woman. She was extremely unusual for her time. She was very, very well read - she could read Latin and Greek - and she knew a lot about history. She was very highly educated for the 1700's. And not only that, she was extremely headstrong. She had very strong views about parenting, and she and her husband did clash on a lot of issues at various times in their marriage. However, her strength of character really did pay off when her husband Samuel was put into a debtors prison in Lincoln castle - he was put there because he hadn't paid his debt on time. She had to care for her 10 children without any money, or any help, and she managed to do it. John Wesley said of his mother later, "She felt a lot less for people than her husband, but she did ten times more."

Susanna was very, very strict with the children - extremely strict. In fact, they were given a very strong education, but they were punished very severely for any wrongs that they did. And even when they were punished, and they were beaten for their crime, whatever it was, she instructed them that they were not to cry, they were only allowed to murmur softly, that was all. She had an extreme discipline that she applied to them. Her level of organization, which was incredible, really stuck with all the Wesley children in their adult years. She taught them the Bible. She even had a schedule, because, of course, she had 10 children, and met with each one on one evening a week, where she would meet with the one child for additional teaching, instruction, and development of character. She also had an incredible way of teaching reading. She had a method that she swore by, and John Wesley learned to read in two days.

John Wesley, however, was a very bright boy. And he was picked out very early on as somebody who was extremely capable during school time, and he was given a scholarship to go to Oxford University. Here he also excelled. He was a very good student in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and he could actually speak them as well. He also studied logic and the classics. And his university days were very good - he studied very, very hard, and he was elected a Fellow of Lincoln College in Oxford. This was a an award or an honor given to senior academics who were outstanding in some way. To be named a fellow was such an honor and Samuel Wesley was so proud of his little John, as he would say.But during this time, Wesley also wanted to continue that strong discipline that his mother had instilled in him. He wanted to live a really, really holy life. He wanted to take account of every moment of every day. And so he started a journal. And in his journal, he decided he would write down everything he did, or the key things that he did and achieved, in each day. He wrote it in a shorthand to make it quick, and in a code so that nobody else could see what his journal said. It was such a good code that it actually took 250 years for people to fully decipher his journal. He read the Bible very closely - he could read it in Greek and Hebrew - and he strove to live a perfect life. In his journal he wrote that he was going to give up idle talk and vain plays and things like that. He really wanted to be like a saint.

Now, when Charles Wesley joined his older brother a few years later at Oxford, this saintly life his older brother was living didn't appeal to him. He was far more interested in the theater and in poetry, particularly in writing poetry - he loved that. But John was desperate for his brother to also follow him in his holy pursuits. During this time, John Wesley read many books. One of the books he read was called "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life". He really took this to heart, and he strove day after day, to be deemed worthy at the end of his life to be accepted by God.

At the age of 21, Wesley was ordained as a clergyman. This was an obvious career path for him because, of course, his father was a clergyman. And that's what was customary in those days, you followed in your father's footsteps. Although this was seen as a good career move, as it was a stable job and so on, he took it to heart, he really took it seriously. He wanted to be a good example to his congregation.

One time an elderly man said to him a line that stuck with him for the rest of his life. He said to John Wesley, "The Bible knows nothing of a solitary religion. You cannot serve God alone. You must therefore find companions, or make them." So John took this to heart, and he thought, "If I'm going to be holy, then I need to find other people that will help me and keep me accountable." And so Charles became his first companion. Charles had already been very much influenced by his older brother, and had let go of a lot of the leisure activities that he liked. He also wanted to follow in his older brother's footsteps. Soon a number of other companions came and joined them, and the other students at Oxford University used to laugh and called this group, "The Holy Club", because they were all trying to be perfect and holy. But Wesley encouraged this little band of companions to live a purposeful and godly life. He felt that in striving to do this together, they would finally be able, at the end of their lives, to enter through the gates of heaven.

Now Wesley was a natural leader. He was senior in terms of his academic skills, he was also extremely organized, very disciplined and had a huge amount of energy, and so everyone looked up to him, and it was pretty obvious why. He also led by example. So there were times when he had the idea that they needed to be generous to the poor. And so he thought that they should save money. So he would not put a fire in his room during the cold English winters to save that money so it could be used elsewhere. He also fasted twice a week. He also decided that it would be a great idea not to hire horses and waste money like that, but actually to walk everywhere, and of course, benefit from the exercise as well. This was massively significant because in order to visit his own parents, it meant a walk of 240 kilometers, one way. And that's what he and Charles would do when they went to visit their parents. Now his parents were so alarmed at this change in lifestyle that they actually said, "What, don't visit us! Because we are so stressed and anxious for that week that you are on the road walking, that you will be attacked by bandits, that it is not worth you coming to visit us. We don't want you to come." But they did come, and they walked the entire way. While they walked, they would read and they would discuss things, because John Wesley was so clear about the use of time. Even his own mother, Susanna Wesley, said to him, "I'm ashamed of you. And I hope that you'll come to your senses, with all this fasting, with all this walking. What do you think you're doing?" That's how people viewed them.

At that time, there was a young servitor, which is like a servant to the university students, whose name was George Whitfield. Charles had seen him as a young man, and this man, George, was quite interested in the gospel, and Charles had invited him to come and be part of the Holy Club. Whitfield, when he joined, was in awe of John Wesley. Wesley was much his senior in understanding and learning, but also spiritually - he understood the Scriptures so much. But there was one thing Whitfield really struggled to understand.

You see, Wesley, along with many other people at that time, believed that you were born again when you were christened as a baby, and that then you had your lifetime ahead of you to reach Christian perfection, and then, maybe, by the end of your life, if you had reached that Christian perfection, you would be approved by God and deemed worthy and allowed to be with Him in Heaven. But Whitfield really didn't see that in the Scripture. It didn't fit. But he was so much in awe of his mentors, the Wesley's, both John and Charles, that he didn't ever dare to speak it, and he decided he would follow in their footsteps and live a perfect and holy life.

Now, Wesley's father was dying and the two sons ended up journeying that very long walk back to Epworth to be with him, and they stayed with him for a while. And while they were away, Whitfield came to the end of the road in all his striving and he experienced the Lord. He understood at that time, when he was alone, the word "grace", he had experienced grace. Whitfield was absolutely transformed. He talked about a joy that was overflowing. Suddenly the Scripture became alive to him and he understood what it meant to be born again. He wrote Wesley a long letter because he understood that Wesley, John Wesley and Charles, neither of them, had this experience - they had not been born again. They were striving under the law - they did not understand grace. Whitfield saw this clearly. He wrote John a very long letter, and explained his experience, and tried to explain this idea of grace from Scripture. The Wesley's didn't agree.

Meanwhile, the colonies of America were being set up, and many people were moving over to America, from Europe, from many other countries. Wesley was asked if he would be a missionary, not only to the native Indians there, but also to the settlers. There was no minister there, and they wanted to establish something. And so Wesley was called to be a missionary. He thought that this would be a really good opportunity. Charles also was asked to go as a Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs, or something like that. But Wesley was very clear about his motives, and this is perhaps a little questionable, but he thought that in going over as a missionary and preaching to the Indians, that he would save his own soul. This would help him in his step towards a devout and holy life. And he thought that if he was preaching the gospel, he might also understand it for himself.

On the voyage over, there were many storms. He was in a ship with a whole lot of Germans, who were escaping persecution. These Germans were called Moravian. They were Christians, they were believers, who were being very much persecuted in Germany by the Catholic Church. These people were traveling over to America to start a new life there. Wesley actually started learning German, as you do on a voyage, so he could converse freely with these people. He sat amongst them and he listened to them, and he sat in their meetings, and he saw that there was something very different about these people. They were simple folk, but they were so different. There was a joy that he certainly didn't have.

Then there was a night when there was a storm raging outside. And Wesley was in with these Germans as well as several of the other English crew. And there was a point where they were singing together, but a huge wave tossed the ship to the side and then crashed down onto the deck, splitting the main sail. Even the sailors who were experienced on the ocean, screamed in terror. They thought that night it was all over. And Wesley himself found himself screaming in terror as well, he was so scared to die. But as he noted afterwards of those Germans, they finished the hymn. There was no screaming amongst them. The men, the women, and even their children, were so calm and peaceful, through the whole storm, despite the fact that they were holding on to things so as not to be washed into the raging sea.

Now that experience shook Wesley, because he realized that he really was scared to die. When he arrived in Savannah, Georgia in America, he met with a German pastor who had a sense of Wesley's need and maybe understood him a little bit. This man said to Wesley, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" Wesley answered straightaway and said, "I know He is the Savior of the world." And then the man said, "True, but do you know that He has saved you?" And Wesley said, "I hope that He has saved me." The man pressed again and said, "Do you know this in yourself?" And Wesley said, "I do." But later in his journal he wrote, "'I do'? Vain words."

Wesley's time in America was a complete and utter disaster. He had gone to improve himself, to follow his strict holy lifestyle, to get a full understanding of the gospel while he converted all of those native Indians. But the whole venture completely undid him. Firstly, the Indians completely ignored him. They did not relate to him at all. They ignored him completely. And not one of them showed any interest in the message that he brought them. The settlers thought that this strange little man from England was an annoyance. They disliked him a lot - they thought he was strict and severe - they didn't want him at all. And Wesley himself found it very difficult to be there. He found it very difficult to preach. He couldn't really teach the people, and none of them liked him at all. But then, there was the love affair.

Wesley had no intention of marrying, he knew that it wouldn't be right for a missionary if he was traveling through the remote areas of America. There was no way he could be married. And yet he had fallen in love with a young lady by the name of Sophie, and he didn't know himself at this time. He was perhaps a little impulsive. His friends actually warned him and said for him to be careful. But he was impulsive, and he proposed to this young lady, and she actually declined him. She had been engaged to an unsavory man who was currently in prison for fraud or something like that. And so the whole experience had led her to feel so hurt that she seemed determined she would never be married. But Wesley thought that perhaps she was the one, and he was so in love that his judgment was very clouded. At one point his friends asked him to pray about it, and they decided to follow in the footsteps of the early apostles in Acts, and they wanted to draw a lot. And so they wrote on three pieces of paper, "Marry", "Think no more of it", "Think no more of it this year". And they put those bits of paper in a bag, they prayed fervently that God would pull out the one that would give Wesley the correct direction. Wesley pulled out the card, opened it up and it said, "Think no more of it".

But Wesley did think of it, and he thought about it a lot. Now, as time went on, he did continue to think about Sophie and wonder about their union. But Sophie still said, "No, I really can't marry". But there were rumors that she was actually courting, or a man by the name of Williamson was actually courting her. And Wesley, when he came back to the town where she lived, confronted her about these rumors, and she denied and said it was completely wrong, and not true at all. And then he was very shocked within a week to find that she was engaged to this Williamson! He was so upset, and yet he knew that God had spared him from an unsuitable union. She deceived him and lied to him over and over again, and he couldn't see that at that time. He felt miserable and lonely. A while later, Sophie and Williamson were married, and some other things happened. There was a time when Wesley refused to allow Sophie to take part in the Breaking of Bread, the Holy Communion. This was because he felt that she'd been dishonest about something, and Williamson was enraged. "Why did this minister think he had the right to tell this to Sophie? If she wanted to have the Holy Communion, she could have it!" He was so angry that he issued an arrest warrant for John Wesley, with a fine of 1,000 pounds, and there was no way Wesley could pay. The colony was very divided, and many of them supported Williamson because they didn't like Wesley anyway. And some people said, "Well, Wesley is the minister here." And so there were some that supported Wesley, but Wesley stood his ground and he was very strict and severe about this. He refused to budge, and he refused to pay the fine.

But in his heart of hearts, he knew that his whole time in America had just been a complete disaster. All the work that he could do, even in the future, was now in tatters, and he knew he really had to leave. And so leave he did. He escaped at night. He was with two other perhaps more unsavory characters who were also escaping the colony. They sailed down the river. They got out there to traipse through swamps and find their way through the forest to a town that then led them to the port, and to a ship that went to England. On that voyage home Wesley had a lot of time for reflection. He had seen something of his own heart. He had seen his faith - well, he saw that he had none. He was so scared in the face of death. He had been so disliked by the settlers, ignored by the Indians, embroiled in this love affair that really hurt him, and then he'd been arrested, he'd been fined, and then he had deserted the colony, by night. It wasn't exactly glamorous - perhaps disaster was too tame a word. He wrote in his journal a bit later, "I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well, and I believe myself while no danger is near, but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled, and nor can I say, 'To die is gain'." But this was not the end of his story.

On May 24, when he was 35 years old, Wesley randomly opened his Greek New Testament and his eyes came upon the verse that said, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God". That very evening he was invited by some Germans to a meeting place and he actually didn't want to go - he really preferred to stay at home. But he went in order to be polite. And at this particular meeting there was someone going to be reading from the preface of Martin Luther's commentary on Romans. And it was at 8:45, when the reader was at the point where Luther described the change that God works in the heart of man by faith, that Wesley suddenly sat up. He wrote later, "I felt my heart strangely warmed. Suddenly, I realized that I did trust Christ alone for my salvation. I had an assurance that he had already taken my sin." Wesley, in listening to that commentary on Romans, and just the preface, had suddenly realized that he had been living his life under the law. He had not even understood grace. He had been hoping for Christian perfection, that perfect holy life. He knew he had failed spectacularly. Suddenly, he realized that he was already a conqueror, not because of anything Wesley had done, but because of everything Christ had already done for him. Wesley knew that he was justified by faith, and he had, that very night, peace with God.

But the devil acted very, very quickly, and the next day he was seized with doubt because Wesley had no overflow of emotion. He wasn't like George Whitfield who hugged the first person he saw and wanted to dance down the stairs. For Wesley, he felt no huge emotion, just the calm assurance that he had been saved. And the devil suggested to him that he had not, because he had none of that joy that Whitfield had described in his long letter, and none of the joy that some of these Germans had that he'd met. But, thankfully, Wesley saw this as temptation from the enemy, and he carried on because he knew that God had worked in him and that the lack of felt emotion had no bearing on God's work in his life.

Now, Wesley's work completely changed. He now, for the first time in his life, had a message to preach. He now understood the gospel very clearly and the Scripture opened itself to him. Whitfield, meanwhile, had already been preaching through England and had already traveled over to America to take Wesley's place. When he went to America, he preached the gospel to thousands, and he found that the settlers was so hungry for the Word of God. His whole experience in America was so different to Wesley, because, of course, Whitfield was preaching the gospel, while Wesley had been preaching the law. The settlers in America loved Whitfield, and he loved them in a way Wesley never did. But not only that, Whitfield had been working in England and he had been preaching in Bristol and he had spoken to thousands. He had written letters to Wesley explaining all this work that had been happening and said, "God is at work here. Please help me, join with me in this." One thing that Whitfield described at first quite alarmed Wesley. It was Whitfield describing these very, very poor people in Kingswood, outside of Bristol, the coal miners or the colliers. Now these men lived very much separately from the rest of society. There were the poor, and then there were the coal miners. They were the poorest of the poor, they had no hope on earth whatsoever. They lived in shanty towns away from everybody else, they were known for their violence, their drunkenness, of course, and their degraded lifestyle.

Many of their children had to work very long hours in the coal mines. Of course, the parents did as well. Often people were killed in the coal mines, but it was cheaper just to get someone else rather than retrieve the body. And so that's what they were, just seen as a resource. And even the children were sent down into the smaller coal mines where they would dig, and if they were scared the rich owners would just give them gin to drink. That's how it was. So many people died not only breathing the toxic coal dust, but also from all the accidents that happened, and from the drunkenness and violence in these communities. These communities were so removed that even the clergyman of the day didn't want to let these people into the church buildings less they defile the congregation. They had a nice building but the colliers were dirty, and seen as the community that was to be forgotten.

But Whitfield had gone to them. Whitfield had preached the gospel to these people standing in the field, and preaching to thousands and found that they were hungry, desperate for the hope that came through Jesus Christ, and Whitfield wrote of all of this to Wesley. Wesley thought it was marvelous. God was at work. But there was one thing that really troubled him. Whitfield was preaching outside, outside of a church building. You didn't do that in those days. In fact, Wesley himself didn't think it was proper. He thought it was even disrespectful for someone to preach outside a church building. Could someone even be saved outside of a church building, is that possible? That's what was the thought - he had a traditional prejudiced view about things. But he couldn't deny that God had been working. And after thinking for a while, and after reading the Sermon on the Mount, where, of course, Jesus Himself preached in the fields, suddenly Wesley realized that all those traditional views were nonsense. And he understood that, "All the world is my parish". Everyone needed to hear the gospel. Wesley knew then that it was his calling to preach to and teach, not only the aristocrats and the academics at Oxford and the various universities, but also the coal miners, and the tin miners, the factory workers, and the chimney sweeps.

Now, while Whitfield spoke with incredible effectiveness, with so much emotion, and great storytelling, and a voice that carried to over 10,000 people, Wesley didn't have those exact same gifts. He had very different gifts, but the two of them were able to work together so well. Whitfield would come through and preach the gospel. There were thousands of converts. Wesley would come in and teach the people. He understood that these people, having been saved by the Lord - that was one thing - had lives that were so contrary to the gospel. There was so much they had to change and work through. He was one that understood that and he really helped these new converts grow. So, for example, with the colliers of Kingswood, Whitfield saved so many of them, but Wesley came in afterwards. He organized them in what he called "little societies", small groups. He identified people that he taught who became mature leaders, who then were able to meet with small groups to encourage people to keep them accountable. He helped them get off the gin - he exchanged that with tea - he taught them to drink tea. And he wanted to teach them how to pray, and of course, they were illiterate, so he had to find people who could read in order to read the Scripture to them, and then help them understand. So Wesley made sure that those seeds were in deep soil and the roots went down deep. The discipline from his early childhood, learned from his mother, he helped apply to other people and helped to get people to live together, to help them with organizing themselves and becoming more disciplined. This is from where the name Methodist came. These little Methodist chapels, rooms and societies became a thing that people recognized. Wesley himself never used this word, but other people did, in jest. When they were laughing at him, they used to say, "Look at his methods, he has all these strange methods, he is so organized and has all this organization". And so they called him a Methodist. But Wesley never really wanted to go against the Church of England at the time. He never wanted to start a new denomination. All he wanted to do was to help people grow in the Lord and to make disciples. That, he knew, was his calling.

Now, Charles too had been converted. And although he did preach like his older brother, that was not his main gift. His main gift was writing poetry which just rolled off his pen. Charles wrote, in his lifetime, 6,000 hymns, many of which we still know today, like, "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing", "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling", and "Christ, the Lord is Risen Today". All of these were Charles Wesley's hymns. Actually, while he wrote these hymns, often John edited them. John was very careful with the detail. He often looked at one word, and he said, "Not 'sinless', change that to 'spotless', not 'with' make that 'in'. He was so detailed, and he was very, very careful with the wording of these hymns, because the reason they put these hymns together was to teach the poor. John wanted to apply these hymns to a very simple, catchy melody, and Charles would make sure that the melody wasn't distracting from the words. They were careful to put into the words important truth, because they knew these poor people couldn't read, and they didn't have Bibles. And so they wanted to teach through hymns. They wanted these poor people to take these hymns with them, as they descended into the coal mines, as they were walking along the roads at night, as they were in the horrible factories or up those chimneys. He wanted these people to have this with them. And that is actually where these hymns started to be heard throughout England. It wasn't in the church buildings, it was often in the field, in the factories, and in the coal mines. That's where these hymns were found.

Susanna Wesley had learned about the two brothers', her two sons', conversions, and to her it was all very strange, but she had listened to them. And one Sunday, when she was receiving communion at a church, she heard the word that she had heard 100 times before "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee." But suddenly, those words came alive to her. And she said, "The blood of Jesus Christ, given for me, that's what it means!" And she suddenly realized that the Lord's death was for everyone, and that His blood had been shed for her. It was something that had been accomplished. And she knew that all the things that her sons had told her fitted together. She wrote to her sons later and said, "I knew that Christ had forgiven my sins at that point". And so in her later years, Susanna Wesley too became the servant of God.

Now Wesley traveled up and down England on horseback, all the way through England, and sometimes he walked. He had a huge amount of energy and industry. He kept a very, very strict schedule. He purposed to himself that he would rise at 4:00am every day, because often his first preaching engagement was at 5:00am, where he preached to workers before they went out onto the field. And he kept up this very strict schedule for his entire life. But he was not always welcome wherever he was.

One evening (the devil might have had something to do with this) he was speaking to a group of people and they were pressed into the room of a house, and there were so many people pressed in that the floor started to sag. Soon, as more people piled in and they were sort of hanging off doorframes and everything, the whole floor dropped. However, the owner of that house had, just two days before, packed the basement with barrels of tobacco, and the barrels were full as well. And so the floor simply dropped a meter and sat on top of all the barrels. So Wesley just continued preaching, just a meter lower than where he was previously. Nobody was hurt and they just continued to listen, and he was hardly interrupted.

However, there were other times when there were lots of desperate attempts to interrupt him. In London, he was preaching outdoors to a huge crowd, when a whole band of youth thought it would be a great idea if they could cause huge confusion, maybe even a riot, by bringing an ox through the crowd. What they did was this: they got this ox, and then they made it really angry, they beat it and made it really jumpy, and then they led it to the back of the crowd and they let it go, hoping it would charge straight through the crowd, trampling people, hitting people from side to side, and all the people would run and there would be a massive stampede. These youths thought that would be wonderful, and it would be a way of getting Wesley out of town. However, when they let the ox go, the ox ran around the crowd. And the people at that point were so angry, they went back to get the ox. Wesley was expounding on the verse that said, "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God". They let the ox loose again, but again, the ox ran around the crowd. They even tried to push it into the crowd, but it refused. It turned to the side and went around. And then finally, in their rage, they shoved it to try to get it into the crowd and it turned on them. It ran straight at them and they had to disperse.

Believe it or not, this actually happened a second time at another town where Wesley went to preach. A gang of men really wanted to get rid of Wesley - they didn't want to hear his preaching. So they hired a bull this time, and they beat it until it was bleeding and so angry. They dragged this angry bull through the crowd, and of course, people dispersed and jumped from side to side as the bull came through. Wesley was standing on a table to speak to the crowd, and they brought the bull and let it go right in front of Wesley where he was standing on that table. But the bull stood still, like a log, and didn't move. These youth were so angry and they beat the bull and shoved it, to the point where Wesley was actually continuing to preach and occasionally just had to move the bull's face out of his face while he was preaching so the blood wouldn't go over him. And he continued to preach. But the youths were so angry that his bull wasn't moving - it didn't move at all - and so, in their rage, they smashed up the table that Wesley was standing on. One of Wesley's companions caught Wesley before he was crushed by this mob. And the bull still stood there, and Wesley was carried off. Then he set up at another place a little bit down the road, and the whole crowd followed him, leaving these youths with their hired bull.

But Wesley didn't only meet with persecution amongst the general population, he also met with a lot of persecution from the clergymen themselves of the various churches. Bear in mind that a lot of the clergymen of the day were not saved, they did it because it was a good secure job. They felt very threatened by Wesley and his different ways and his extreme methods. Historians have said about England at the time that when a clergyman preached in a church, you didn't know if he was preaching about Confucius, Muhammad, or Christ. That was the level of Christianity in England at that time, and so many of these clergymen, when they heard Wesley thought he was very extreme, talking about Christ.

When Wesley came back to his hometown of Epworth at one time, the clergyman there closed his doors to Wesley and said, "You are not preaching here!". But the people of Epworth expected Wesley to preach that Sunday, so they crowded in from even neighboring towns, to hear Wesley preach. Of course, they were a little disappointed when the minister himself got up, and not Wesley, and gave a whole sermon against the dangers of strange madmen like John Wesley. That was his entire sermon and John Wesley sat there, but he knew that he needed to preach to these people in his hometown. And so his assistant, one of his traveling companions, stood outside the church on the way out and announced that Wesley would be preaching that very night at 6:00pm at the church. The curate said, "Oh, no, you're not, you are not welcome here". But Wesley had a loophole, and he knew that he would be preaching there at the church at 6:00pm. Well, the word spread quickly and soon crowds were gathered. And at 6:00pm sharp Wesley was there and the curate said "You are not coming in. You're not coming in. You're not going to be preaching in my church". But Wesley said, "Yes, I know, but I am allowed to preach on my own family property, am I not. That's one place where you are not able to stop me." And so Wesley stood on his father's tombstone, and from there he preached and the curate really couldn't say anything, because that was Wesley family property. And so from there, standing on his father's tombstone, he preached to a crowd of thousands who stood in the graveyard of the church, and in the streets beyond.

In a town near Birmingham, when Wesley was preaching, a huge mob that was in a drunken frenzy came and surrounded the house in which he stayed. These were dangerous times where these mobs, with their violence, knew that they would never really get caught. Sometimes the constables turned a blind eye, particularly if there was a little bribe involved or anything like that. And so Wesley, when the mob surrounded this house, knew, and his companions knew, that it was very dangerous. This mob was calling for blood, and they were calling to bring him out. They said, "Knock his brains out, kill him, kill him". Wesley knew that it might be his last night, and so he decided that he would go out and meet them. He stood out in that mob and he talked about having a great presence of mind, despite the chaos and the throng of the crowd. He tried to speak to them, but they would not listen. They grabbed him and they wanted to drive him out of the town. Wesley remembered this occasion and he said, "God so completely overruled, and perhaps even showed here a slight sense of humor, with many miracles". Firstly, the road out of the town was on a very steep slope. These were cobblestone paths, and it was also damp, and Wesley was being pushed by this huge throng down a hill. Now he knew that if he slipped and fell that he would be trampled by this mob and beaten into a pulp. He thought that he would slip at any moment, but he never did. He never even tripped. And the second thing was that in this mob there were a lot of fighters - in those days they had bare knuckle fighting and bear fighting and all sorts of other violence sports. Amongst this mob there were all these prize fighters, and they were all trying to grab hold of Wesley's clothes, but their hands couldn't get a grip, they just kept slipping off. They could never grip Wesley, even though they tried to reach out for him. Thirdly, there was a man who stood in front of him at one point with a huge oak club, and he went to hit Wesley over the skull. Wesley, at that point, committed his life to the Lord. But this man just kept missing. It was as if his club went from side to side, and he couldn't control it. He got so angry, as he tried to aim straight ahead of him, and he kept missing from side to side, and Wesley was seeing this club move from side to side. He gave up after a while. And then another man came right at him and tried to grab him and he had his fist ready. And then his fist stopped in midair, and, "He patted me on the head and said, 'My what soft hair he has!', and it was as if he'd forgotten what he was doing". Meanwhile, Wesley was driven out of the town, and the mob dispersed. And he found that he only had a few bruises, scratches, and a torn coat pocket, and that was it. Even his companions, when they had gone out into the mob after him, had said, "We are not afraid to die because Christ has died for us and we will give our lives this night". That's how serious it was. And all of them were quite surprised to see each other alive.

Now in his mid 40's, Wesley was advised by people that he should marry. This was perhaps one of the greatest trials of his life. He did marry, he married a widow by the name of Molly or Mary. She was actually known to Charles and Charles' wife, Sarah. Charles was horrified when he heard that this was a potential union. Charles thought, "No, no, no, no". But John had seen this woman and seen her piety. She was industrious, she was efficient. In fact, he was a bit too hasty. He proposed to her and she accepted. She knew already, of course, of his lifestyle, and John Wesley had made it very clear that, as a single man, or as a married man, nothing would change. He had a calling from God, and he needed to fulfill that calling to preach and teach Christ to the people of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. That was his clear mission.

But within a few weeks of their marriage, it was very different. Molly, it was revealed, had an extremely violent temper and she was very jealous. She hated the fact that he was off preaching all the time. She hated the fact that he was writing letters to people and preparing sermons. She felt very jealous. At times, she would steal his papers and burn his writings, just to get back at him. She resented his generosity to the poor people as well, and soon it was very clear, and John knew, that her heart was not with him, her heart was actually against him. She did everything she could to stop him from serving the Lord and preaching, and doing what the Lord had called him to. But John was perhaps very much shaped by this particular trial. His character was very much shaped and he became a much mellower man. As a result, some people actually even said that he was too meek, and too mild, and perhaps should have done a little more. Molly wrote scandalous letters about her husband, and sent them to people who hated him already to feed their hatred. She did everything to increase the hatred for John Wesley amongst the clergymen. One time, a friend of John Wesley arrived at their home unannounced, and walked into the drawing room and found Molly dragging John by his hair across the floor in a rage. But Wesley was very meek and mild about this. Molly ended up leaving John Wesley to live with her relatives, and they were never reunited.

Wesley continued with excellent health throughout his later years, despite his extremely full schedule and trying life. His life was a variation on this single theme - to preach Christ and to build up believers and to build up the church. He had a very busy routine, on the road all summer, a circle around the entire kingdom, England and Scotland and Wales. He traveled up and down visiting villages, 15 or 16 times. And he would check on the people and all the believers in those places. In the winter when the roads were more impassable, he was often found in London or Bristol, in cities, where he was overseeing a lot of the schools that he had set up, the orphanages and meeting with various leaders in little Methodist chapels.

His little rooms and homes were springing up in villages all across England. This is where Wesley encouraged people to meet, not just on Sundays, but also at other times, singing hymns, teaching hymns, encouraging prayer, keeping each other accountable, and many people were doing that.

At 85 years old, Wesley was still preaching and traveling through England, but Charles was not so well, and when Charles passed away, Wesley was very affected. Three weeks after the funeral, he was preaching to a crowd and there was a children's choir, and this choir sang one of Charles' hymns. And as was his custom, John Wesley stood up and he just read out the first verse of the hymn that they would be singing. And when he came to the line, "My company before is gone, And I am left alone", the silver haired man covered his face and wept. And it was said that the entire congregation burst into tears with him. But he wiped his tears away and he preached to the rest of the people. At 85, he was still in extremely good health. It was incredible that his only complaint was that he struggled to read small handwriting by candlelight.

He continued to travel, and at this time in his life, he was known as the best loved man in England. The places where the mobs had run him out of the town, the town where they'd hired the bull - now those same people were flocking just to see him or catch a glimpse of this elderly man who had saved them from themselves. And he wrote later, "Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry, because I never undertake more work that I can do, and then I can go through with perfect calmness of spirit".

At 87, he was beginning to fail, and his companions noticed he was becoming very weak, and they knew that he was near his end, when one day he wasn't able to rise out of his bed. On Tuesday, the first of March, he had no strength left in him, and they knew that the end was near. His final words were, "The best of all, God is with us". And with that, he tried to sing an Isaac Watts hymn, but all they could hear was "I'll praise Him, I'll praise Him". He went to be with his Lord and Master the next morning. The last sermon he preached - he only preached it just a few days before - was on the text, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found".

Wesley travelled 8,000 kilometers every year, on foot or on horseback, and he tirelessly taught people and built people up, encouraged new converts and made sure that they would be able to become the leaders of the next generation. They say he preached 40,000 sermons in his lifetime, but it was probably more than that. He wrote numerous letters to individuals encouraging and advising them. He wrote articles in journals, he created tracts, he wrote lessons of Hebrew grammar, English grammar, Bible lessons for children and for the schools that he worked with and that he'd helped set up. Not only that, but he edited and sometimes co-wrote many of those hymns that Charles Wesley wrote, although he always attributed them to Charles.

It is most interesting that a secular magazine, the Gentleman's magazine, when they heard of John Wesley's death, wrote of him, "Instead of being an ornament to literature, he was a blessing to his fellow creatures. Instead of the genius of the age, he was the servant of God."

But perhaps we can share a little in this last word, which Wesley wrote for himself, and may it be our prayer as well. "Let it be the one desire of my heart, to be as my Master, to do, not my own will, but the will of Him that sent me."