JOHN WESLEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1938, Page 11

JOHN WESLEY.

DAY OF "CONVERSION."I I 200 TH ANNIVERSARY NEXT I WEEK. 1 i | METHODIST CELEBRATION. (By W. D. M-S.) John Wesley is a prominent figure in the rank 6 of great Englishmen, yet up to his thirty-fifth year he gave no indication of being, or doing, anything remarkable. He was a rigid and zealous high churchman, and, though, as someone has remarked, he might, had he remained that, have anticipated by a century the work of Newman, it is a conjecture that % lias little or nothing to justify it. But. in his thirty-fifth year he underwent an experience that led to his doing a greater work—the bringing about of a second reformation in England. Radical Spiritual Change. There is an old saying that the unexpected constantly happens. It certainly happened in his case. Nothing was more unexpected by him, or by those who knew him, than tlie radical spiritual change that came over him on the night of Wednesday. May 24, two hundred years ago, at the religious society meeting that he attended in Aldersgate Street, London. It was very unwillingly, he tells us, that he went to it. But as he sat listening with others in the stuffy little room to the reading ot Luther's preface to the Epistle to ie Romans, his heart was "strangely warmed," and a new light flashed on his mind. When he left the room it wa» with a new impulse, the impulsei o prophet, and it is appropriate that thej Methodist Church in every part ot thej □■lobe should identify the revival that followed with the "conversion that took place that night, for the Methodist ciiurch is its most concrete memorial. 1

Instruments of Great Revival. It was a time of spiritual torpor and moral deterioration. Men and women had grown indifferent to the beliefs, the institutions and the practices for which their fathers had toiled and suffered. Crime abounded, and the excessive 1 cruelty that was meted out to the crimiinals who came under the arm of the law did not lessen it. A profound moral i revival,- born of a profound spiritual j I awakening, was needed. And it had to] be on a scale similar to that of the Reformation. It was John Wesley, along with his brother, who later was also "converted," and George Whitefield, who was instrumental in bringing it about. With the pulpits of his fellowclergymen closed against him, he set i about preaching in the open air, as , Whitetfield had done. He did not produce the same astonishing effects on people of all classes, educated, and > uneducated, as Whitefield. He lacked ; Whitefield's oratorical gifts, though he . was more scholarly. But there was a , convincing and transforming power in what he said, and how he said it. and it 1 told on the crowds that flocked to hear i him—for the most part of the lower and ) middle classes. New spiritual life came r to them, changing their habits, their interests, their demeanour, and changing 5 them completely. ' Pointing to or.e of the or k shire - dales, John Newton, the friend of tfte poet Cow per. told a companion, this movement began you cot to half a day to the north, the £ - the east/or to. the west without find, ? h . a real devoted (dey ou ) p mvn j ; have thousands o ... coU jd have I - " parish." The same ,5" , ] ps . And!, i ".'J not onlv <■I •Hi it of the organising ability!, L f 6 TohiT^VVeslev. For he was not only | ] of John evangelist, he was al=o ajj ' n °V. f£rand ecclesiastic. It J; F e f t t!o much to say that he had : developed into one of the greate£ j, leaders of the Anglo-Saxon race. And L to his genius for government, m the ( iud-unent of Maeaulay it was not , inferior to that of Richelieu. Passion for Peace. He did more, however, than start a "Teat religious community that to-day numbers some 40.000.000 men and i women in almost every part of the 1 globe. He exercised an indirect m--1 fluence that put new life and energy I into the veins of the Church lie left,

ind of other churches as wt.l. His nfluence was a factor, too. in the prison •eform that was later effected, in the abolition of slavery, the extension of the education of the people, and the initiation of the trade union movement, to mention only a few directions. And it was, and is to this day, a factor in the sphere of politics. We see that, for example, when we contrast the violence on the Continent that accompanied the French Revolution, with the quietness, moderation, and calmness of the progress that took place at Home. And we see it in the passion for peace that is so characteristic of Englishspeaking jjcjople, and which people on the Continent never seem able to understand. Yet Wesley was not » pacifist. He believed in having volunteers, and lie believed in ha*"in? thoroughly armed. But he ha "All our declarations on the. - Of reason our virtues, he once said, ignorance so I( ? n = wo rld. Men in thing as war in allowed to be general can nl th r kno *r Z*tT*r anv moTe. So long as this Wer «talks uncontrolled, where is reason virtue, humanity? They are utterlv excluded, they have no place; they are a name more. YVedev was a prodigious worker. For 50 vears he was up every morning, in !ll "sea-oils, at four o'clock. In consequence. though he was always hastenn~ he was never in a liurry. 1 lie lumber of miles he covered, and or ermons he preached fills one with imazenient. -All the more so when one hinks of the variety and copiousness ol lis literary work. " His journals alone must- have taken up no small part of his time. They are records of his life and work, and make inspiring reading. And. with it all, he was a great reader. Had he not been blessed with good health, and the power to sleep at will, he could never have carried on his labours, as he did, to a ripe old age. Many stories are told of him —of his bluntness of speech, for instance, when it was appropriate to j the occasion. Here is one. When a girl in Derbyshire ran to the door a s he vas passing, and called. "God bless you, Mr. Wesley," he answered. "Young woman, your blessing would be of more value if your face and apron were cleaner."