WESLEY,
JOHN

(June 17, 1703–March 2, 1791), was an evangelist and religious leader who founded the Methodist denomination. While students at Oxford University, he and his brother Charles formed a scholarly Christian group called, the “Holy Club.” The Wesleys were close friends with George Whitefield, the renowned preacher of the American Great Awakening. In 1738, the Wesleys set sail from England to Georgia to serve as missionaries. During the tumultuous voyage at sea, they observed the faith of the Moravian Christians. There was awakened within them a desire for a more intimate relationship with God, eventually leading them to faith in Christ. Together with George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley were among the most influential ministers of the 1700’s.446

In his journal, John Wesley wrote:

On shipboard, however, I was again active in outward works: where it pleased God, of his free mercy, to give me twenty-six of the Moravian brethren for companions, who endeavored to shew me a more excellent way.

But I understood it not at first. I was too learned and too wise; so that it seemed foolishness unto me. And I continued … trusting in that righteousness whereby no flesh can be justified.

All the time I was at Savannah I was thus beating the air. Being ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, which, by a living faith in him bringeth salvation to every one that believeth, I sought to establish my own righteousness, and so laboured in the fire all my days.

In my return to England, January 1738, being in imminent danger of death, and very uneasy on that account, I was strongly convinced that the cause of uneasiness was unbelief, and that the gaining a true, living faith was the one thing needful for me. …

So that when Peter Boehler, whom God prepared for me as soon as I came to London, affirmed of true faith in Christ … that it has those two fruits inseparably attending it, “Dominion over sin, and constant peace, from a sense of forgiveness,” I was quite amazed, and looked upon it as a new Gospel. …

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.447

On June 11, 1739, in his Journal,, John Wesley wrote:

I look upon the world as my parish.448

On February 12, 1772, in his Journal, John Wesley wrote:

That execrable sum of all villainies, commonly called the Slave Trade.449

John Wesley wrote as his Rule:

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.450

John Wesley stated:

My mother was the source from which I derived the guiding principles of my life.451