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From his evangelical conversion in 1738, till
he died in 1791 aged 88, Wesley kept up his mission with phenomenal
drive and stamina.
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Picture: 19th-century pottery bust
of John Wesley. From Wesley's
Chapel, London.
Interested in talking about John Wesley and the issues he raises for
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He toured the country on horseback continually,
in all weathers, preaching most days, up to five times a day.
At a sober estimate, he rode 250,000 miles in total, and preached
more than 40,000 sermons. "I love a commodious room, a soft
cushion, a handsome pulpit," he confessed. "But where
is my zeal if I do not trample all these underfoot, in order to
save one more soul?"
He had an extraordinary impact on his audiences. Many who came armed
to cause trouble were so struck by his meek but powerful presence
that they became followers. Audiences who were already sympathetic
to his message, he could – and often did – reduce to wild
convulsions, trances, or howling to God for mercy.
But he was not just interested in getting souls into heaven –
or into Methodist groups. It was very important for him to make
this life better for those who had least. He organised famine relief,
free loans, clothes for the poor and work for the unemployed. He
ran schools for miners' children, made a collection for enemy prisoners
of war and opened the first free medical dispensary in Britain.
He gave away £30,000 of his personal income (an amount that
could have kept a gentleman for a decade). Even when he made £1400
a year from his books, he kept £30, as ever, and gave the
rest to the poor.
He was not only a preacher but a great deal of time into organising
his converts into local groups, so the could meet regularly and
encourage each other to keep going, and so that he could keep tabs
on them. This is why, though other Methodist preachers such as Whitefield
were more popular, it was Wesley who died leaving 132,000 followers
in the British Isles and America.
Today, in Wesley's tercentenary year, his Methodist following numbers
33 million throughout. But many others look to him or feel his influence
as well, because he was a founding father of the evangelical movement,
which has been perhaps the most influential stream of Christianity
in the English-speaking world.
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