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Handout #205 |
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John Wesley |
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Wesley's conversion 24 May 1738 has always
been given a special place of honor in Methodism as the date of John
Wesley's experience of conversion, although modern historians are more
inclined to see this as one stage only of a gradual spiritual journey.
Characteristically, the experience seems to have begun for Wesley amid the
solemnity of Anglican liturgy, and continued through the hearing of a
central text of the German Reformation. The Society in Aldersgate had
Moravian connections.
In the afternoon I was asked to go to St. Paul's (Cathedral, for Evensong). The anthem was, 'Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, 0 Lord; Lord, hear my voice... ' In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where 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's preaching Thursday 26 April 1739 - While I was preaching at Newgate on these words, 'He that believeth hath lasting life', I was insensibly led, without any previous design, to declare strongly and explicitly that God willeth 'all men to be thus 'saved; and to pray that, 'if this were not the truth of God, He would not suffer the blind to go out of the way; but if it were, He would bear witness to His word'. Immediately one, and another, and another sunk to the earth; they dropped on every side as thunderstruck. One of them cried aloud. We besought God in her behalf, and He turned heaviness into joy. A second being in the same agony, we called upon God for her also; and He spoke peace unto her soul. In the evening I was again pressed in spirit to declare that 'Christ gave Himself a ransom for all'. And almost before we called upon Him to set His seal, He answered. One was so wounded by the sword of the Spirit that you would have imagined she could not live a moment. But immediately His abundant kindness was showed, and she loudly sang of His righteousness. Wesley and a bishop, Joseph Butler, Bishop of Bristol (1692-1752 A.D.), was a conscientious clergyman and a very distinguished philosopher, but his encounters with John Wesley were not a success, as this fragment of an interview (18August 1739 A.D.) reveals. However, it is worth noting that this comes from Wesley's own memory of what took place! (Butler) Mr. Wesley, I will deal plainly with you. I once thought you and Mr. Whitefield well-meaning men; but I cannot think so now. For I have heard more of you: matters of fact sir. And Mr.Whitefteld says in his Journal: promises still to be fulfilled in me. ' Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing - a very horrid thing! (Wesley) My lord, for what Mr. Whitfield says, Mr. Whitefield, and not I, is accountable. I pretend to no extraordinary revelations, or gifts of the Holy Ghost: none but what every Christian may receive and ought to expect and pray for ... But pray, my Lord, what are those facts you have heard? (B) I hear you administer the sacrament in your societies. (W) My lord, I never did yet, and I believe never shall. (B) I hear, too, that many people fall into fits in your societies, and that you pray over them. (W) I do so, my lord, when any show by strong cries and tears that their soul is in deep anguish. I frequently pray to God to deliver them from it, and our prayer is often heard in that hour. (B) Very extraordinary, indeed! Well, sir since you ask my advice, I will give it to you very freely. You have no business here, you are not commissioned to preach in this diocese. Therefore I advise you to go hence. (W) My lord, my business on earth is to do what good I can. Wherever, therefore, I think I can do most good, there must I stay, so long as I think so. At present I think I can do most good here; therefore, here I stay. As to my preaching here, a dispensation of the gospel is committed to me, and woe is me if I preach not the gospel whenever I am in the habitable world! Your lordship knows, being ordained a priest, by the commission I then received I am a priest of the Church Universal. And being ordained as Fellow of a College [Lincoln College, Oxford], I was not limited to any particular cure, but have an indeterminate commission to preach the word of God in any part of the Church of England. I, do not therefore conceive that, in preaching here by this commission, I break any human law. When I am convinced I do, then it will be time to ask, 'shall I obey God or man? ' But if I should be convinced, in the meanwhile, that I could advance the glory of God and the salvation of souls in any other place more than in Bristol, in that hour, by God's help, I will go hence, which till then I may not do. Passages taken from the Journal of John Wesley, London 1909, Vol. 472-3; 11, 184, 256-7. |
