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John
Wesley Preaching
 Wesley, JOHN,
founder of the Methodist Church; born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, June
17, 1703; was educated at Oxford University, and ordained deacon in
1725. In 1730 he and his brother Charles, with a few other students,
formed a society on principles of greater austerity and methodical
religious life than then prevailed in the university. They obtained
the name of Methodists, and Wesley became the leader of the
association. In 1735 the celebrated
Whitefield joined the society,
and he and Wesley accompanied
Oglethorpe to Georgia
to preach the Gospel to the Indians in 1736. Through the arts and
falsehoods of two women Charles fell into temporary disgrace.
Oglethorpe, satisfied with his explanation, sent him to England as
bearer of dispatches to the trustees. John remained and became
pastor of the church at Savannah. He was a strict constructionist of
the rubrics of the prayer book, for he had not then begun his labors
as the founder of a new sect. His zeal and exactions at length gave
offence, and he soon got into other trouble by becoming the lover of
a young woman, who, as he suggests in his journal, made pretensions
to great piety to entrap him. By the advice of friends he broke the
engagement. She immediately married another. Becoming less attentive
to her religious duties, Wesley, according to the strict rule he had
laid down, after several public reproofs, which she resented,
refused to admit her to the Lord's Supper. Her husband, regarding
this as an attack upon her religious character, claimed damages to
the amount of $5,000. The grand jury found two bills against Wesley,
charging him with this and eight other abuses of his ecclesiastical
authority, and also of speaking and writing to the woman without her
husband's consent. The quarrel grew hot, and finally, by advice of
the Moravians, he gave notice of his intention to go to England and
lay the matter before the trustees. The magistrates demanded a bond
for his appearance to answer to the suit against him. He refused to
give it, and they forbade his departure. As soon as evening prayer
was over he fled to Charleston, whence he returned to England, and
never went back to Georgia. He had stayed six months there, and on
his return to England he began itinerant preaching, often in the
open air, and attracted many followers. The churches of the
Establishment were closed against him, and he had large chapels
built in London, Bristol, and other places; and he and
Whitefield
labored in unison in building up Methodism. Differences in doctrine
finally separated them, and they labored separately for the same
great end. Wesley traveled almost continually over the United
Kingdom in promoting his mission, and was the most successful
preacher of these times. He died in London, March 2, 1791.
Death
of John Wesley
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