44. Chapter 40: The Origin and Development of Methodism

CHAPTER 40 The Origin and Development of Methodism

1. John Wesley’s Birth and Early Childhood

Samuel Wesley was a minister in the Church of England in the rough country parish of Epworth. His wife was Susanna Annesley, a woman of unusual strength of character and, like her husband, very loyal to the Anglican Episco­pal Church. The careful Christian training Susanna Wesley gave her children was a strong influence in their lives.To this couple there were born nineteen children, eight of whom died in infancy. In this household of thirteen people, hard work and the strictest economy were a necessary rule. The fifteenth child, John, and the eighteenth child, Charles, were destined to become important in the history of the Church. In 1709 the Epworth parsonage burned to the ground. Both John and Charles were saved from death in the flames with only the greatest difficulty. John was then a boy of six. His rescue from a fiery death made an impression upon him which time could not erase. He re­garded himself as "a firebrand plucked out of the burning."

2. Charles Wesley Establishes a Club

Both boys were good students, and both entered Christ Church College in Oxford, John in 1720 and Charles six years later. John was such an outstanding student that he was chosen a Fellow of Lincoln College. In order to be a candidate for this honor it was re­quired that one be in holy orders.

John was therefore ordained a dea­con in 1725, and three years later he was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church of England. His father, Samuel Wesley, was now getting on in years, and for a time John left Oxford to be his father’s assistant in the parish of Epworth.

While John was absent from Ox­ford his brother Charles, together with two other students, Robert Kirkham and William Morgan, formed a club for the promotion of their studies. Soon they were spending a good deal of time in reading books that might be help­ful to their Christian life. When in 1729 John returned to Oxford he became the leader of the club, and other students joined. More and more it became the purpose of the club to realize the ideal of a consecrated Christian life.

A MEETING OF THE "HOLY CLUB" AT OXFORD
Religious News Service
John Wesley and his university friends gather for a Sunday evening discussion. The members of the club began to visit the prisoners in the Oxford Jail. They also began to practise systematic fasting. The other Ox­ford students made fun of John Wesley and his fellow club mem­bers. They called the club the "Holy Club." Most of the students lived wild and irregular lives. The members of the club were known to live very regularly according to a definite method. Some student started to call them Methodists. This nickname stuck.

3. In America the Wesleys are In­fluenced by the Moravians In 1735 Samuel Wesley died. John would have been glad to suc­ceed his father in the Epworth parish, but he was not granted this privilege. It was at this time that Count Oglethorpe issued a call for missionaries to come to America and preach in his newly established colony of Georgia. The widowed mother of John and Charles urged them both to go. Said she, "Had I twenty sons I should rejoice that they were all so employed, though I should never see them more." The two brothers sailed in October, 1735. The voyage was stormy. At times the ship seemed on the point of foundering. Aboard ship was a company of twenty-six Moravians. In the midst of the storm they were calm and even cheerful. They not only prayed for protection, but as sea after sea washed the deck they sang hymns of praise with un­daunted joy. John Wesley felt that these Moravians had a quiet trust in God far beyond his experience. From their behavior and his con­versation with them he learned much.

Soon after his arrival in Georgia he met August Spangenberg, who was associated with Zinzendorf in the work, and the leader of the Moravian settlement in the colony. Spangenberg asked Wesley, "Do you know Jesus Christ ?" Wesley answered: "I know He is the Sav­ior of the world." Said Spangen­berg: "True, but do you know He has saved you ?" For three years Spangenberg’s question preyed on John Wesley’s mind. He was not sure of the answer.

John and Charles Wesley labored with all their might in Georgia. John was a wonderful linguist; he knew many languages well. He preached in German, French, and Italian, as well as in English. He also founded a small society for the cultivation of a warmer Christian life, undoubtedly patterned after his college club. But he had one serious failing; he lacked tact. The labors of the brothers were most unsuccessful. Charles fell ill, and the year after their arrival he left the colony and returned home. On February 1, 1738, John too was back in England. The return voy­age had also been stormy, and John was often in fear of death. He was bitterly disappointed with himself. He felt that he had only "a fair weather religion." The trip to America was for the Wesleys a failure, as far as mission work was concerned. Yet the Geor­gia episode was of great impor­tance in the life of John Wesley, because of some of his experiences and because of certain people he met.

4. The Wesleys Are Converted

Within a week after John’s re­turn, the brothers became ac­quainted with a Peter Bolller, also a Moravian, who was in London awaiting passage to Georgia. Bal­er taught a faith of complete self-surrender, instantaneous conver­sion, and joy in believing. Before he sailed he founded in London the Fetter-Lane Society, of which John Wesley became a charter member. But neither John nor his brother had as yet found peace for their souls. On May 21, 1738, Charles, then suffering from a serious illness, experienced conversion. Three days later that same experience came to John. It was evening. Unwillingly he had gone to a meeting of an Anglican society in Al dersgate street. Luther’s Preface to his Commentary on Romans was being read. Wesley has left a record of his experience at this time: "About a quarter before nine, while I was listening to Luther’s description of 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." This experience of John Wesley had a far-reaching effect. It deter­mined his idea of how conversion takes place. From this time on he thought of conversion as an instan­taneous experience preceded by a long and hard struggle. He be­lieved that a person should be able to tell the exact circumstances and the time and place of his conver­sion. Yet even after this experi­ence considerable time passed be­fore Wesley came to know complete freedom from fear and full joy in believing. It was only after much communion with God that he at length experienced it for himself. The Moravians had been a great aid to Wesley, and he wanted to know more about them. Less than three weeks after his conversion he went to Germany. He met Count von Zinzendorf and spent two weeks in Herrnhut. Wesley owed much to the Moravians, but he was not entirely satisfied with them. He was too active in his religion and not mystical enough to feel entirely at one with them. The Moravians were thoughtful and meditative, and stressed their dependence upon God.

5. Religious Conditions in England Are Deplorable

Wesley’s long life spanned al­most the entire eighteenth century. During this century England en­gaged in a long and bitter contest with France for supremacy among European powers. During this same century England laid the foundations of her vast empire in India, North America, Australia, and South Africa. The Industrial Revolution also took place at this time. England had been an agri­cultural country, but now, with the invention of new machines and the emphasis on manufacturing, large cities sprang up in many places. This new industrial age brought with it great changes in the lives of the English people.

Religious conditions in England at this time were deplorable. Both the Established Anglican Church and the dissenting denominations of the Presbyterians, the Congre­gationalists, and the Baptists were shot through with Socinianism and Arminianism. Most of the sermons lacked warmth and enthusiasm. They were dry, cold, colorless talks on morality. With a few praise­worthy exceptions the ministers did no more than was absolutely required of them, and that little they did in a purely routine way. The highly paid church officers had poorly paid helpers, called vicars, to do the work. Many of the clergy­men shamefully neglected their work. They hobnobbed with the land-owning gentry, and were companions of the squires in their fox hunting, drinking, and card playing.

Especially in the first part of the eighteenth century moral condi­tions in England were deplorable. Wide-spread unbelief went hand in hand with coarseness and brutality. Public amusements were of a low character. Drunkenness was com­mon among high and low.

6. There Are a Few Rays of Light

However, it was not all dark in eighteenth century England. Bishop Berkeley of the Anglican Church, who lived for a short time in the colony of Rhode Island, was filled with missionary zeal. William Law wrote A Serious Call to a De­vout and Holy Life, a book which had a profound influence on John Wesley. Up to this time the Eng­lish speaking people were opposed to singing in their services any­thing but rimed passages from Scripture. Their attitude changed with the publication in 1707 of Isaac Watts’ Hymns, and in 1719 of The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testa­ment. The songs of Isaac Watts give expression to a deep and vital piety. He has very appropriately been called "the founder of modern English hymnody." In many places in England "so­cieties" were organized for prayer, the reading and study of the Bible, and the cultivation of a more ear­nest religious life. Thomas Bray saw the people’s need of Bibles and religious literature, and in 1699 he founded the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This led in 1701 to the foundation of the Soci­ety for the Propagation of the Gos­pel in Foreign Parts, an organiza­tion which has developed into a great missionary society. Both these societies were strictly Epis­copal Anglican institutions. They have carried on their work with increasing energy to the present day.

WESLEY PREACHES IN THE CHURCH YARD AT EPWORTH
Wesley wrote in his Journal, "I stood near the east of the Church upon my father’s tombstone and cried, ’The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and by in the Holy Ghost.’ "

It was in this England, growing in wealth and power but religiously stagnant and morally corrupt—an England lighted by only a few stray and feeble gleams—that John Wesley, with the help of his broth­er Charles and their friend George Whitefield, began his mighty work.

7. John Wesley Is a Remarkable Preacher

Though most of the pulpits in the Established Church were closed to them, John and Charles Wesley began to preach. The societies which we mentioned in the pre­vious section turned out to be a great help to them. It was in these societies that they found their first opportunity to deliver their mes­sage. In 1739 George Whitefield began to preach in the open fields to the miners in the neighborhood of Bris­tol. Soon he invited the Wesley brothers to join him. Preaching in the open fields instead of in a church was something entirely novel. John Wesley hesitated very much to engage in that kind of preaching. To preach anywhere but in a church seemed to him to be below the dignity of religion. But he learned that these coal min­ers were poor people, who had never been inside a church, and who knew nothing about the Gos­pel. He could not resist the appeal of their need. It also came to his mind that Jesus frequently preached in the great out-of-doors. On April 2, 1739, Wesley preached his first sermon in the open air. This was the beginning of Wes­ley’s remarkable preaching career, which extended over fifty years, and which took him on horseback in every kind of weather many times through England, Scotland, and Ireland. Wesley did not possess Whitefield’s dramatic power. But he was earnest, practical, and fear­less. Few preachers have ever equaled him in popular effective­ness. The effect often showed itself in great bodily excitement on the part of his hearers.

8. Wesley Organizes Methodist Societies

Wesley was not only a great preacher; he was also a great or­ganizer. His first Methodist society he founded in Bristol in 1739. On May 12 of that year he began the erection of the first chapel there. In London the Methodists at first joined in the Moravian Fetter-Lane Society (sec. 4). But after a time Wesley and his adherents with­ drew, secured an old foundry as meeting place, and there in July, 1740, established the purely Meth­odist "United Society." Wesley con­tinued on friendly terms with the Moravians, but from this time on Moravians and Methodists led each their own existence.

Wesley had no desire or inten­tion of separating from the Estab­lished Episcopal Church in Eng­land. He did not found a new church or denomination until near the end of his long life. Yet at the same time he could not bear the thought of letting the fruit of his work go to seed. He was deter­mined to conserve and develop the religious life of those who had re­sponded to the call of the Gospel. As we have seen, before Wesley launched out on his great preach­ing career there already existed in many parts of England religious "societies" (sec. 6). Wesley now adopted this device and employed it in his work. He gathered the people who had responded to his preaching into such "societies."

Anyone who was interested could become a member of the societies that existed before Wesley. But Wesley made it a rule that only converted persons should belong to his societies. The new converts were expected to go out and con­vert others. To the converts Wes­ley issued "society tickets." These tickets had to be renewed quarter­ly. That provision put into Wesley’s hand a simple means for weeding out members whose conversion proved to have been only tempo­rary or not genuine at all.

There was a debt on the chapel in Bristol. This led to an even more important arrangement. It was an arrangement which became one of the basic features of Methodist or­ganization. The members of the societies were divided into classes. Each class was made to number about twelve, and had a class lead­er. It was one of the duties of the class leader to collect a penny weekly from each member. In this way considerable sums of money for the work were gathered in. More important even was the means this system provided for the spiritual oversight of the members of the societies.

Before long Wesley needed help in his work. He would very much have preferred having all the preaching done by ordained men, but none were to be had. In 1742 Thomas Maxfield became the first lay preacher, (a man who is not trained and ordained as a minis­ter). Soon Wesley employed quite a number of lay preachers. As the work continued to grow other lay officers were used: stewards to care for property, teachers for schools, and visitors of the sick.

Originally the societies were al­most all in London and Bristol and neighboring territory, and Wesley visited each one of them personally. As the work expanded this task became too great. In 1744 Wesley for the first time had the preachers meet him in London. That was the beginning of the Annual Confer­ences, which have been called the crown of the Methodist system of organization.

Two years later the field was divided into circuits. To each cir­cuit a number of traveling preach­ers were assigned. After a while assistants were appointed, each one of them to have general charge of a circuit. Later these assistants were called superintendents.

Because his lay preachers had but scanty intellectual equipment Wesley thought it best that they labor not more than six or eight weeks in one place. Thus began the system of itinerant (traveling) preachers, which has since then be­come an important feature in the life of a number of denominations.

Charles Wesley also rode the cir­cuits for many years. His wife, who was a woman of wealth, ac­companied him on his travels, rid­ing behind him on his horse. She led the song services at the meetings her husband conducted. Charles was the hymn writer of Methodism. He wrote hundreds of hymns, many of which have become famous. They are sung even today, not only by Methodists but by all English - speaking Christians. Charles did not have the iron con­stitution of his brother John. After 1756 he seldom traveled. First he labored in Bristol, but from 1771 until his death on March 29, 1788, he preached in London.

9. The Methodist Church Comes into Existence

Wesley urged his lay preachers to apply themselves to serious study. He did not establish semi­naries, but he wrote and published material for these men to study at home. John Wesley’s writings were a considerable influence in the in­tellectual development of the lay preachers.

JOHN WESLEY
Religious News Service
After an engraving by J. Fittler published in April, 1792, in London

Wesley tried in vain to have these preachers ordained by the bishops of the Anglican Church. Failing in this he remained steadfast in not permitting his lay preachers to administer the sacraments. But the need for ordained ministers became greater and greater. At last Wes­ley could withstand the pressure no longer. He himself was a pres­byter in the Church of England. Only bishops had the authority to ordain, but Wesley had long held the conviction that presbyters and bishops in the Church of New

Testament times were of the same order. So on September 1, 1784, in Bristol, Wesley ordained two men. He himself did not think so at the time, but actually this act of his was a break with the Church of England. The Methodist Church had come into existence.

What was true of Moses was true of John Wesley. His eye was not dim and his natural force was not abated when in his eighty-sev­enth year he died in London on March 2, 1791.

10. Wesley Employs Unusual Methods

Wesley’s methods were not only new; they were revolutionary. In three ways they were a wide de­parture from the usual church practice.

First of all, Wesley preached in the open air. That certainly was not the usual thing. It is true, Christ had preached not only in the synagogues but also on the mountain slopes, at the sea-side, in country highways and city streets. After the Christian Church was established preaching had been done for the most part in churches. Preaching in the open was not a matter of principle with Wesley. The closing of the pulpits of the Church of England to him forced that method upon him. Then it became for him a means to an end. When the churches were closed to him, he turned to the unchurched. Preaching in the open was practi­cally the only way to reach them.

Next, Wesley preached anywhere that he saw the need for his preaching. That too was unusual. In England, as in other countries, each minister was expected to preach and perform pastoral work only in his own church or parish. Wesley invaded the parishes of other ministers all over England, Scotland, and Ireland. When criti­cized for this he answered, "The world is my parish." Again this method of Wesley was the result of his efforts to reach especially the unchurched. There was a great need for this work. The ministers of the established churches had woefully neglected it. A very large number of them had sadly neg­lected the work among the mem­bers of their own parishes (sec 5). It was Wesley’s passion for saving souls that drove him to invade the parishes of other ministers. He often met with harsh criticism.

Third, Wesley engaged unor­dained men to preach. This was contrary to common practice. Only ordained men were allowed to preach in the established churches. Once more it was the crying need of the starving souls of the un­churched and the lack of ordained men to rescue the perishing that drove Wesley to adopt this un­churchly method. And he adopted it only very reluctantly. This is how it came about: While Wesley was busy in Bristol, Thomas Maxfield (sec. 8), a lay­man, began to preach in London. Wesley hastened back to put a stop to this unheard of procedure. His mother talked to him. "John, you cannot suspect me of favoring readily anything of this kind. But take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as truly called of God to preach as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him also yourself." Wesley followed the advice of his mother, and exclaimed, "It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth to Him good !" Thus was introduced the practice of using lay preachers, which is followed in many churches today. Long before the time of Wesley, Article 8 of the Church Order of the Reformed Churches had opened a way for laymen of exceptional gifts to be ordained as ministers. In the Reformed churches this method has been used in rare cases, but Wesley made it common practice.

11. Wesley’s Doctrine Is Arminian

Generally speaking Wesley’s the­ology was that of orthodox Protes­tantism. He believed firmly in the deity of Christ, in miracles, and in the supernatural character of reli­gion. In opposition to the Baptists he believed in and practised infant baptism. In one extremely important point he departed theologically from his­toric Protestantism. In the Angli­can Church of his day Arminian-ism was widely accepted. Wesley was an Arminian. He declared it openly and opposed Calvinism. Whitefield (sec. 6 and 7), who was a convinced Calvinist, died in 1770. In the annual conference of that year Wesley took a strong Armin­ian position. As it was his passion for saving souls that had made him break with centuries old church practices, and had led him to introduce en­tirely new methods, so it was that same passion that made him so bitter against Calvinism. He be­lieved with all his heart in the power of sin and in the power of Jesus’ blood. Fearlessly he preached against the many gross sins of his day, especially against drunkenness and gambling, and he sought to bring sinners to con­version. But he felt that Calvin’s doctrine of predestination and elec­tion would stifle the call to repent­ance and conversion. For that reason he rejected Calvinism, and embraced Arminianism with its doctrine of the freedom of the will. He believed that people accepted Christ through their own will or choice.

12. His Influence Is Immeasurable

Today there are Methodists in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America. They are divided among many Methodist denominations. The total membership of these de­nominations, huge though it may be, gives only a scant idea of the effects of Wesley’s work. Those effects are stupendous. The England Wesley left behind him was so different from the Eng­land he found (sec. 5) that it was almost unrecognizable. He had transformed it. He had built up a large, entirely new denomination. He had gained many members from the Anglican, Congregation­alist, and Baptist churches. But chiefly he had built up his church out of people who before had not belonged to any church. But that is by no means the whole story. He breathed new life into many of the existing churches. A number of these churches Wes­ley imbued with the spirit of evan­gelism, so that they themselves not only enjoyed a new growth and prosperity, but helped Wesley’s Methodist Church considerably in improving the national life of Eng­land.

Much of the ignorance, coarse­ness, brutality, and drunkenness disappeared from English life. Some outstanding people were in­fluenced by Wesley’s work. Among them were John Newton, a hymn writer; William Cowper, the great­est English poet of the latter half of the eighteenth century; William Wilberforce, who helped bring the fight against slavery to a victorious close; John Howard, who did so much for the reform of the un­speakably bad prison conditions; and Robert Raikes, the father of Sunday Schools. The influence of Wesley and the Methodists, particularly in the English speaking world, is indeed immeasurable.