Wesley, John
NAME: Wesley, John Benjamin
ACHIEVEMENTS: Founded the Methodist movement in the Church of England
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: June 17, 1703, Epworth, Lincolnshire, England
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: March 22, 1791. Aged 88
DISCIPLINE: Minister
FIELD: Religion
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Samuel Wesley, clergyman and former Nonconformist; Susanna
Annesley, daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley, renowned Nonconformist
SIBLINGS: Eight. Younger brother Charles, was co-founder of the Methodist
Church. Older brother Samuel, Headmaster of Blundell's.
SPOUSE: Molly Vazeille
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: Charterhouse School, London
MAJOR WORK: None
LIFE AND TIMES:
After his graduation in 1724, Wesley was made a deacon by the Bishop of Oxford. In 1726, he was elected a Fellow of Lincoln College. Wesley was ordained in 1728 and returned to Oxford the next year to take up his duties. He taught Greek and lectured on the Greek New Testament.
In 1727, Wesley's brother Charles had formed a religious group at Oxford to discuss the classics and order their lives in a Christian way. Upon his return to Oxford in 1729, John
automatically assumed leadership of this group and laid down his own rules. This was the pattern of his relationship with his brother. John was the leader and organizer; Charles was the poet and hymn-writer.
They called their study group "The Holy Club ". Others called them the "Methodists". They met every day from 6-9 pm to say prayers and psalms and study the Greek New Testament. They took communion every Sunday. They fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. Their membership slowly increased.
They taught prisoners to read, prayed with them and helped them find jobs after prison. They went into workhouses, gave food, clothes, books and medicine to the poor and ran a school for them.
The Wesley’s contented themselves with this life until they met Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe, a professional soldier who had led the movement to investigate debtors' prisons. Because of his work in 1729 and 1730, about 10,000 debtors were set free from prison. Oglethorpe proposed that a fortified British settlement in the American Carolina colony would offer resettlement for debtors. In 1732, Oglethorpe prepared the ground at Savannah, making friends with the natives. In 1734 , he returned with Tomo-Chi-Chi, a
chief and five other Indians, who were entertained by the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury and at Eton College.
John and Charles Wesley sailed to America in October, 1753. John had been hired by Dr. John Burton, a cleric and scholar of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He was to be a missionary to the Indians rather than a vicar for the settlers. During the voyage, the passengers soon came to resent John. They didn't like his rules and they didn't like the cabin being used for prayers twice a day.
Upon arrival in Carolina, it became clear John had no idea how to teach Indians and he quickly abandoned the scheme, applying himself instead to the parishioners, holding services and visiting houses. But his behavior soon began to rile the community. He would visit at inappropriate hours. He alienated the doctor by locking him in a guardroom because he didn't observe the Sabbath. And once he refused baptism to a woman who didn't want her child totally immersed.
Eventually he was charged with trumped-up offences and fled to Charleston, and then to England, where, in 1738, he suffered a sort of spiritual breakdown, feeling he had failed, as he wrote in his diary, to convert himself to God. He was rescued from his malaise by Peter Boehler, a Moravian pastor. A religious society was formed on Boehler's advice, for which Wesley laid down the rules.
At 35, he decided his mission in life was to proclaim the good news of salvation by faith, and, once again, he began to annoy people. The Church of England, unhappy with Wesley's methods, made it more and more difficult for him to find a pulpit to preach. He concentrated instead on attending religious societies and encouraging people to form "bands" similar to the Moravian "band" Wesley had so admired on the way to America. The "bands" were groups of people of the same sex and marital status who would bond together and "confess" their current spiritual state, share religious feelings and, listen to criticism from other members. He drew up Rules of the Band Societies.
George Whitefield, who was to become a well known preacher in the Evangelical movement in Britain and America, persuaded Wesley to take over his ministry and go to the un-churched masses. Whitefield had been preaching in the open to coal miners outside Bristol but now wanted to return to Georgia. In the spring of 1739, Wesley preached his first open air sermon in Bristol.
In 1740, Wesley broke with the Moravians and accepted the principle and practice of lay preaching. From now on, he became an itinerant preacher. He had two great gifts: preaching and organizing. He would preach and inspire young followers to carry on when he left the area. In Lincolnshire, in 1741, he preached at Epworth from his father's tombstone because he wasn't allowed to preach in the church. The largest congregation Epworth had ever seen attended the graveyard event. In 1742, he had an amazing success at Newcastle, which became a great centre for Methodism. He arrived, began to sing the 100th psalm, and soon had drawn a crowd of about 1,500.
In 1743, he published the Rules for Methodist Societies. In 1746, he founded a dispensary for the poor in London, and set up a galvanic apparatus for treating people by electricity.
<knew> Dr Johnson* found Wesley a good conversationalist, but complained he left social gatherings too early.
Wesley had converts not only among the poor but in society. The Countess of Huntingdon, was his main conduit into aristocratic circles. She held religious meetings in her drawing rooms .
In 1784, Wesley ordained members so they could work in America. This caused an official split with the Anglican church. However, Methodism had expanded and he was invited to preach in Anglican churches and became an honoured figure in Britain.
One week before he died, Wesley wrote to <corresponded with> William Wilberforce*, "Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery,
the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish before it". This was probably his last letter. Before he died in 1791, at 88, he said "The best of all is: God is with us". This became a rallying cry for Methodists.
ASSESSMENT: He founded the Methodist movement, which spread worldwide.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: An admirer of mathematician <a fan of> Blaise Pascal*.
<painted by> Romney* painted his portrait.
He was a follower of <a follower of> Arminius*
ONELINER: John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Pudney, John John Wesley and His World, Thames and Hudson, London, 1978