Wesley the Preacher [Paperback]

 

 

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John Pollock gives an indepth study of the life of John Wesley. He covers Wesleys life history, his hopes, his beliefs and his desires. He charts the growth of Methodist Society. He shows just what an extordinary man John Wesley was and how God used him to bring Christ into the lives of thousands of people.

This is a popular biography of a Christian leader who is credited with changing the face of eighteenth century Britain, reviving the church universal, and fundamentally improving the morals of a nation with effect to this day. Having said that, I am sure that there would be the severest repercussions if John Wesley came back and preached now what he preached then in his own pulpits. [I know I would certainly like to try it. A man who had the spine to directly preach against sloth and greed as gross sins, and instructed the faithful on not being too fat would get quite a warm response today - and that is only a small sampling from what he would get from those within the church. Then there would be the degradation of Sodom, and the idolatry of false religion for a main theme. Imagine the media response. Imagine the court case.]

That said, this is an expertly written biography on its level, the easy mistakes are avoided, the easiest of all would be to descend into anecdotalism and mythologising. It is, as the author says, a `straightforward book' and account. The other actors, especially Charles, are adequately recognised. Although every type of biography - the dry, adulatory, historical, psychological, sociological, inimical, and socialist - has been written, there is certainly space for a new general approach by someone with a broad practical understanding of all the issues. Those hostile and those friendly, and those just curious will find plenty here. His life is divided into three main parts:

Part One: Walking to glory (1703-1737)
This covers early childhood at the rectory, excellent education at Oxford in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, thus giving the lie of inverted snobs that those who have no training or learning (like Peter the fisherman) are God's special favorites, through to his disastrous American missionary career and flight from a kangaroo court on foot through South Carolina, and thence back to England by ship. Although he was an Anglican minister, many would say that in this phase of his career he was not a Christian: a conclusion he himself came to. A good conversation point and essay topic today. Interestingly, his social and professional incompetence with women is already evident, and caused the larger part of his troubles in America.

Part Two: In my heart and in my mouth (1738-1749)
Back in not-very-merry England he comes to faith, his heart is famously `strangely warmed' in an evening meeting that he attended most reluctantly. He began to study his Greek New Testament in greater depth, and with more light than before. He is clearly still struggling to a deeper faith, and it seems to me that a very valuable study could be written on just this phase alone, (and probably has, if only I knew it). His preaching now starts to have much greater effect and naturally he starts to experience opposition in spades, particularly we note from the church ministers who have the horrors at his `enthusiasm'. Mild apathy preferred, so to speak, so long as they feel in control. So anyone who wants to do likewise today better be ready for similar treatment, not that we don't need it desperately. Wesley proves himself a preacher and teacher of great effect, and in particular a gifted administrator, manager, systematiser, and trainer of preachers and helpers. He travels prodigously, with three main bases in England in London, Bristol, and Newcastle. These are very much underrated factors in the permanency of his success. Although he wisely and consistently asserts his desire to remain within the Anglican communion, it is increasingly obvious that he will set up a de facto church denomination by continuing with his enthusiasm and bible preaching regardless of clerical-establishment stuck-in-the-mudness. Of course, some of the bishops are Christians too, so he is not entirely alone, but he did fail to reform and revivify the corpulent organisation he so sincerely loved. Even the toughs in Walsall and Wednesbury failed to daunt him. In St. Ives, Cornwall, while preaching outdoors, he recorded that the `dread of God fell on us while I was speaking, so that I could hardly utter a word.' He had great effect there. His utter incompetence with women re-asserts itself again, and he farcically fails to get the woman who would have been perfect for him.

Part Three: The world my parish (1750-1791)
Travels in Ireland, makes an absurdly mismatched marriage (has to sign a pre- nuptial
agreement that he has no control over to her fortune! Battered husband - gets dragged about by the hair!). By now his mission to `revive the obsolete doctrines and extinguished Spirit of the Church of England' is well secured. [If only someone would do the same for Methodism.] By now he is powerful enough to defy any bishop. The Calvinists and Moravians know their place too. Although he feared that England would descend into revolution, as on the continent, and in America: it did not. He is often cited as a main factor in keeping England peaceful. He supported Wilberforce and John Newton in working against slavery. Now an old man, he is preaching into his eighties, and having outlived the earlier Bishop of Exeter who so bitterly opposed him, he is invited by the current supportive bishop, John Ross, to a meal at the palace. He is universally memorialised on his death, even a secular publication such as `The Gentleman's Magazine' pays him high tribute. Who will rise in his place?

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