CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  ( JOHN WESLEY-THE MAN )  -  { PT.  2 } - Those who want more must look elsewhere. John Wesley was born on June 17,  1703, at Epworth, in North Lincolnshire, of which parish his father was rector, or pastor. He was the ninth of a family of nineteen children ( nine died in infancy ). The oldest son, Samuel, was for some years director of Westminster School, was a close friend of the famous Bishop Atterbury, and died as headmaster of Tiverton School. The second son, John, was founder of the Methodist communion. The third son, Charles, was John's companion and fellow laborer throughout almost his entire life. John Wesley's father, Samuel, was man of considerable learning and great activity of mind. As a writer, he was always bringing out something either in propose or in verse, but nothing, unhappily, which was ever acceptable to the reading public, or is much cared for in the present day. As a politician, he was a zealous supporter of the Revolution that brought ...

[ CHAPTER  5 ]  -  ( JOHN WESLEY--THE MAN )  -  { PT.  5 }   The second person on the list of English Reformers of the eighteenth century whose history I want to consider is a man of worldwide reputation--the famous John Wesley. The name of this great evangelist is probably better known than that of any of his fellow laborers a hundred years ago. This, however, is easily explained. He lived to the ripe old age of eight-eight and for sixty-five years, he was continually before the eyes of the public, doing his Master's work in every part of England. He founded a new religious denomination, remarkable to this very day for its numbers, activity, and success, and rightfully grateful for its extraordinary founder. The story of his life has been repeatedly written by his friends and followers, his works have been constantly reprinted, and his precepts and maxims have been reverentially treasured up and preserved, like Joseph's bones. In fact, if ever a good ...

  { PT.  22 } - I have risen again for his justification. I freely forgive him all. See how slow to anger our all-merciful High Priest was and how great His kindness was. Do you think He has changed His nature and forgets poor sinners now that He is exalted to the right hand of God? No, for He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He sits there only to make intercession for us. Come, then, you prostitutes. Come, you who are hated. Come, you most abandoned sinners. Come and believe on Jesus Christ. Though the whole world despises you and casts you out, yet He will not refuse to take you up. Oh, amazing, infinitely condescending love! Even you, He will not be ashamed to call His brethren. How will you escape if you neglect such a glorious offer of salvation? What would the damned spirits now in the prison of hell give if Christ were so freely offered to them? Why are we not lifting up our eyes in torment? Does anyone in this great multitude dare say he does not deserve ...

  ( CHAPTER  4 )  -  { PT.  20 } - I have offered you salvation on as cheap terms as you can desire. I have offered you Christ's whole wisdom, Christ's whole righteousness, Christ's whole sanctification, and eternal redemption if you will only believe on Him. If you say you cannot believe, you speak the truth, for faith, as well as every other blessing, is the gift of God. So then wait upon God, and who knows but He may have mercy on you. Why do we not hold more loving thoughts of Christ? Do you think He will have mercy on others and not on you? Are you not sinners? Did not Jesus Christ come into the world to save sinners? If you say you are the chief of sinners, I answer that it will be no hindrance to your salvation. Indeed it will not, if you lay hold on Christ by faith. Read the Gospels and see how kind He was to His disciples, who had fled from and denied Him. Go, tell My brethren, He said. He did not say, Go, tell those traitors, but Go, tell my brethren a...

  ( CHAPTER  4 )  -  { PT.  20 } - Do not turn your backs. Do not let the devil hurry you away. Do not be afraid of convictions. Do not think worse of the doctrine because it is preached outside the church walls. Our Lord, in the days of His flesh, preached on a mount, in a ship, and in a field, and I am convinced that many have felt His gracious presence here. Indeed, we speak what we know. Do not therefore reject the kingdom of God against yourselves. Be so wise as to receive our testimony. I cannot, I will not, let you go. Stay a little while and let us reason together. However lightly you might esteem your souls I know that our Lord has set an inestimable value on them. He thought them worthy of His most precious blood. I urge you, therefore, O sinners, be reconciled to God. I hope you do not fear being accepted in the Beloved. Behold, He calls you. Behold, He follows you with His mercy and has sent forth His servants into the highways and hedges to compel y...

  ( CHAPTER  4 )  -  { PT.  19 } - Still, after all that has been said, there can be no doubt that overall he was a notably holy, self-denying, and consistent man. The faults of his character, says an American writer, were like spots on the sun-detected without much difficulty by and cool and careful observer who takes any effort to look for them, but to all practical purposes lost in one general and genial brightness. It would be good indeed for the churches of our day if God were to give them more ministers like the great evangelist of England a hundred years ago! A short extract from the conclusion of a sermon preached by Whitefield on Kennington Common may be interesting to some readers and might serve to give them a little idea of the great preacher's style. It was a sermon on the text, What do you think of Christ? ( MATTHEW  22:42 ). O my brethren, my heart is extended toward you. I trust I feel something of that hidden but powerful presence of Christ...

  { PT.  18 } - If other Christians misrepresented him, he forgave them. If they refused to work with him, he still loved them. Nothing could be a more powerful testimony against narrow-mindedness than his request, made shortly before his death, that John Wesley should be asked to preach his funeral sermon when he died. Wesley and he had long ceased to agree about Calvinistic points, but Whitefield, to the very end, was determined to forget minor differences and to regard Wesley as Calvin did Luther--only as a god servant of Jesus Christ. On another occasion, a critical professed follower of religion asked him whether he thought they would see John Wesley in heaven. No, sir, was the remarkable answer. He will be so near the throne, and we will be at such a distance, that we will hardly get a sight of him! Certainly George Whitefield was not a man without faults. Like all of God's saints, he was an imperfect creature. He sometimes erred in judgment. He often made rushed conclus...