and the Wesleys appeared as light-bearers for God. Under the rule of the
established church, the people of England had lapsed into a state of
religious declension hardly to be distinguished from heathenism. Natural
religion was the favorite study of the clergy, and included most of their
theology. The higher classes sneered at piety, and prided themselves on
being above what they called its fanaticism. The lower classes were
grossly ignorant, and abandoned to vice, while the church had no courage
or faith any longer to support the downfallen cause of truth.
The great doctrine of justification by faith, so clearly taught by Luther,
had been almost wholly lost sight of; and the Romish principle of trusting
to good works for salvation, had taken its place. Whitefield and the
Wesleys, who were members of the established church, were sincere seekers
for the favor of God, and this they had been taught was to be secured by a
virtuous life and an observance of the ordinances of religion.
When Charles Wesley at one time fell ill, and anticipated that death was
approaching, he was asked upon what he rested his hope of eternal life.
His answer was, “I have used my best endeavors to serve God.” As the
friend who had put the question seemed not to be fully satisfied with his
answer, Wesley thought, “What! are not my endeavors a sufficient ground of
hope? Would he rob me of my endeavors? I have nothing else to trust
to.”(369) Such was the dense darkness that had settled down on the church,
hiding the atonement, robbing Christ of His glory, and turning the minds
of men from their only hope of salvation,—the blood of the crucified
Redeemer.
Wesley and his associates were led to see that true religion is seated in
the heart, and that God’s law extends to the thoughts as well as to the
words and actions. Convinced of the necessity of holiness of heart, as
well as correctness of outward deportment, they set out in earnest upon a
new life. By the most diligent and prayerful efforts they endeavored to
subdue the evils of the natural heart. They lived a life of self-denial,
charity, and humiliation, observing with great rigor and exactness every
measure which they thought could be helpful to them in obtaining what they
most desired,—that holiness which could secure the favor of God. But they
did not obtain the object which they sought. In vain were their endeavors
to free themselves from the condemnation of sin or to break its power. It
was the same struggle which Luther had experienced in his cell at Erfurt.
It was the same question which had tortured his soul,—“How should man be
just before God?”(370)
The fires of divine truth, well-nigh extinguished upon the altars of
Protestantism, were to be rekindled from the ancient torch handed down the
ages by the Bohemian Christians. After the Reformation, Protestantism in
Bohemia had been trampled out by the hordes of Rome. All who refused to
renounce the truth were forced to flee. Some of these, finding refuge in
Saxony, there maintained the ancient faith. It was from the descendants of
these Christians that light came to Wesley and his associates.
John and Charles Wesley, after being ordained to the ministry, were sent
on a mission to America. On board the ship was a company of Moravians.
Violent storms were encountered on the passage, and John Wesley, brought
face to face with death, felt that he had not the assurance of peace with
God. The Germans, on the contrary, manifested a calmness and trust to
which he was a stranger.
“I had long before,” he says, “observed the great seriousness of their
behavior. Of their humility they had given a continual proof, by
performing those servile offices for the other passengers which none of
the English would undertake; for which they desired and would receive no
pay, saying it was good for their proud hearts, and their loving Saviour
had done more for them. And every day had given them occasion of showing a
meekness which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck, or
thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in
their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were
delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger,
and revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the
sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured
in between the decks as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A
terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on. I
asked one of them afterward, ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank
God, no,’ I asked, ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He
replied mildly, ‘No; our women and children are not afraid to die.’ ”(371)
Upon arriving in Savannah, Wesley for a short time abode with the
Moravians, and was deeply impressed with their Christian deportment. Of
one of their religious services, in striking contrast to the lifeless
formalism of the Church of England, he wrote: “The great simplicity as
well as solemnity of the whole almost made me forget the seventeen hundred
years between, and imagine myself in one of those assemblies where form
and state were not; but Paul, the tent-maker, or Peter, the fisherman,
presided; yet with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”(372)
On his return to England, Wesley, under the instruction of a Moravian
preacher, arrived at a clearer understanding of Bible faith. He was
convinced that he must renounce all dependence upon his own works for
salvation, and must trust wholly to the “Lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world.” At a meeting of the Moravian society in London, a
statement was read from Luther, describing the change which the Spirit of
God works in the heart of the believer. As Wesley listened, faith was
kindled in his soul. “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” he says. “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.”(373)
Through long years of wearisome and comfortless striving,—years of
rigorous self-denial, of reproach and humiliation,—Wesley had steadfastly
adhered to his one purpose of seeking God. Now he had found Him; and he
found that the grace which he had toiled to win by prayers and fasts, by
almsdeeds and self-abnegation, was a gift, “without money, and without
price.”
Once established in the faith of Christ, his whole soul burned with the
desire to spread everywhere a knowledge of the glorious gospel of God’s
free grace. “I look upon all the world as my parish,” he said; “in
whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to
declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of
salvation.”(374)
He continued his strict and self-denying life, not now as the _ground_,
but the _result_ of faith; not the _root_, but the _fruit_ of holiness.
The grace of God in Christ is the foundation of the Christian’s hope, and
that grace will be manifested in obedience. Wesley’s life was devoted to
the preaching of the great truths which he had received,—justification
through faith in the atoning blood of Christ, and the renewing power of
the Holy Spirit upon the heart, bringing forth fruit in a life conformed
to the example of Christ.
Whitefield and the Wesleys had been prepared for their work by long and
sharp personal convictions of their own lost condition; and that they
might be able to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ, they had been
subjected to the fiery ordeal of scorn, derision, and persecution, both in
the university and as they were entering the ministry. They and a few
others who sympathized with them were contemptuously called Methodists by
their ungodly fellow-students,—a name which is at the present time
regarded as honorable by one of the largest denominations in England and
America.
As members of the Church of England, they were strongly attached to her
forms of worship, but the Lord had presented before them in His word a
higher standard. The Holy Spirit urged them to preach Christ and Him
crucified. The power of the Highest attended their labors. Thousands were
convicted and truly converted. It was necessary that these sheep be
protected from ravening wolves. Wesley had no thought of forming a new
denomination, but he organized them under what was called the Methodist
Connection.
Mysterious and trying was the opposition which these preachers encountered
from the established church; yet God, in His wisdom, had overruled events
to cause the reform to begin within the church itself. Had it come wholly
from without, it would not have penetrated where it was so much needed.
But as the revival preachers were churchmen, and labored within the pale
of the church wherever they could find opportunity, the truth had an
entrance where the doors would otherwise have remained closed. Some of the
clergy were roused from their moral stupor, and became zealous preachers
in their own parishes. Churches that had been petrified by formalism were
quickened into life.
In Wesley’s time, as in all ages of the church’s history, men of different
gifts performed their appointed work. They did not harmonize upon every
point of doctrine, but all were moved by the Spirit of God, and united in
the absorbing aim to win souls to Christ. The differences between
Whitefield and the Wesleys threatened at one time to create alienation;
but as they learned meekness in the school of Christ, mutual forbearance
and charity reconciled them. They had no time to dispute, while error and
iniquity were teeming everywhere, and sinners were going down to ruin.
The servants of God trod a rugged path. Men of influence and learning
employed their powers against them. After a time many of the clergy
manifested determined hostility, and the doors of the churches were closed
against a pure faith and those who proclaimed it. The course of the clergy
in denouncing them from the pulpit, aroused the elements of darkness,
ignorance, and iniquity. Again and again did John Wesley escape death by a
miracle of God’s mercy. When the rage of the mob was excited against him,
and there seemed no way of escape, an angel in human form came to his
side, the mob fell back, and the servant of Christ passed in safety from
the place of danger.
Of his deliverance from the enraged mob on one of these occasions, Wesley
said: “Many endeavored to throw me down while we were going down hill on a
slippery path to the town; as well judging that if I was once on the
ground, I should hardly rise any more. But I made no stumble at all, nor
the least slip, till I was entirely out of their hands.... Although many
strove to lay hold on my collar or clothes, to pull me down, they could
not fasten at all: only one got fast hold of the flap of my waistcoat,
which was soon left in his hand; the other flap, in the pocket of which
was a bank-note, was torn but half off.... A lusty man just behind, struck
at me several times, with a large oaken stick; with which if he had struck
me once on the back part of my head, it would have saved him all further
trouble. But every time the blow was turned aside, I know not how; for I
could not move to the right hand or left.... Another came rushing through
the press, and raising his arm to strike, on a sudden let it drop, and
only stroked my head, saying, ‘What soft hair he has!’ ... The very first
men whose hearts were turned were the heroes of the town, the captains of
the rabble on all occasions, one of them having been a prize-fighter at
the bear-gardens....
“By how gentle degrees does God prepare us for His will! Two years ago, a
piece of brick grazed my shoulders. It was a year after that the stone
struck me between the eyes. Last month I received one blow, and this
evening two, one before we came into the town, and one after we were gone
out; but both were as nothing: for though one man struck me on the breast
with all his might, and the other on the mouth with such a force that the
blood gushed out immediately, I felt no more pain from either of the blows
than if they had touched me with a straw.”(375)
The Methodists of those early days—people as well as preachers—endured
ridicule and persecution, alike from church-members and from the openly
irreligious who were inflamed by their misrepresentations. They were
arraigned before courts of justice—such only in name, for justice was rare
in the courts of that time. Often they suffered violence from their
persecutors. Mobs went from house to house, destroying furniture and
goods, plundering whatever they chose, and brutally abusing men, women,
and children. In some instances, public notices were posted, calling upon
those who desired to assist in breaking the windows and robbing the houses
of the Methodists, to assemble at a given time and place. These open
violations of both human and divine law were allowed to pass without a
reprimand. A systematic persecution was carried on against a people whose
only fault was that of seeking to turn the feet of sinners from the path
of destruction to the path of holiness.
Said John Wesley, referring to the charges against himself and his
associates: “Some allege that the doctrines of these men are false,
erroneous, and enthusiastic; that they are new and unheard-of till of
late; that they are Quakerism, fanaticism, popery. This whole pretense has
been already cut up by the roots, it having been shown at large that every
branch of this doctrine is the plain doctrine of Scripture interpreted by
our own church. Therefore it cannot be either false or erroneous, provided
the Scripture be true.” “Others allege, ‘Their doctrine is too strict;
they make the way to heaven too narrow.’ And this is in truth the original
objection, (as it was almost the only one for some time,) and is secretly
at the bottom of a thousand more, which appear in various forms. But do
they make the way to heaven any narrower than our Lord and His apostles
made it? Is their doctrine stricter than that of the Bible? Consider only
a few plain texts: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.’
‘For every idle word which men shall speak, they shall give an account in
the day of judgment.’ ‘Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all
to the glory of God.’
“If their doctrine is stricter than this, they are to blame; but you know
in your conscience it is not. And who can be one jot less strict without
corrupting the word of God? Can any steward of the mysteries of God be
found faithful if he change any part of that sacred depositum? No. He can
abate nothing, he can soften nothing; he is constrained to declare to all
men, ‘I may not bring down the Scripture to your taste. You must come up
to it, or perish forever.’ This is the real ground of that other popular
cry concerning ‘the uncharitableness of these men.’ Uncharitable, are
they? In what respect? Do they not feed the hungry and clothe the naked?
‘No; that is not the thing: they are not wanting in this: but they are so
uncharitable in judging! they think none can be saved but those of their
own way.’ ”(376)
The spiritual declension which had been manifest in England just before
the time of Wesley, was in great degree the result of Antinomian teaching.
Many affirmed that Christ had abolished the moral law, and that Christians
are therefore under no obligation to observe it; that a believer is freed
from the “bondage of good works.” Others, though admitting the perpetuity
of the law, declared that it was unnecessary for ministers to exhort the
people to obedience of its precepts, since those whom God had elected to
salvation would, “by the irresistible impulse of divine grace, be led to
the practice of piety and virtue,” while those who were doomed to eternal
reprobation “did not have power to obey the divine law.”
Others, also holding that “the elect cannot fall from grace nor forfeit
the divine favor,” arrived at the still more hideous conclusion that “the
wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor to be considered as
instances of their violation of the divine law, and that consequently they
have no occasion either to confess their sins or to break them off by
repentance.”(377) Therefore, they declared that even one of the vilest of
sins, “considered universally an enormous violation of the divine law, is
not a sin in the sight of God,” if committed by one of the elect, “because
it is one of the essential and distinctive characteristics of the elect,
that they cannot do anything that is either displeasing to God or
prohibited by the law.”
These monstrous doctrines are essentially the same as the later teaching
of popular educators and theologians,—that there is no unchangeable divine
law as the standard of right, but that the standard of morality is
indicated by society itself, and has constantly been subject to change.
All these ideas are inspired by the same master-spirit,—by him who, even
among the sinless inhabitants of heaven, began his work of seeking to
break down the righteous restraints of the law of God.
The doctrine of the divine decrees, unalterably fixing the character of
men, had led many to a virtual rejection of the law of God. Wesley
steadfastly opposed the errors of the Antinomian teachers, and showed that
this doctrine which led to Antinomianism was contrary to the Scriptures.
“The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to _all men_.”
“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will
have _all men_ to be saved; and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for _all_.”(378) The Spirit of God is
freely bestowed, to enable every man to lay hold upon the means of
salvation. Thus Christ, “the true Light,” “lighteth every man that cometh
into the world.”(379) Men fail of salvation through their own wilful
refusal of the gift of life.
In answer to the claim that at the death of Christ the precepts of the
decalogue had been abolished with the ceremonial law, Wesley said: “The
moral law, contained in the ten commandments and enforced by the prophets,
He did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any
part of this. This is a law which never can be broken, which ‘stands fast
as the faithful witness in heaven.’ ... This was from the beginning of the
world, being ‘written not on tables of stone,’ but on the hearts of all
the children of men, when they came out of the hands of the Creator. And
however the letters once wrote by the finger of God are now in a great
measure defaced by sin, yet can they not wholly be blotted out, while we
have any consciousness of good and evil. Every part of this law must
remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either
on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the
nature of God, and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to
each other.
“ ‘I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.’... Without question, His
meaning in this place is (consistently with all that goes before and
follows after),—I am come to establish it in its fulness, in spite of all
the glosses of men: I am come to place in a full and clear view whatsoever
was dark or obscure therein: I am come to declare the true and full import
of every part of it; to show the length and breadth, the entire extent, of
every commandment contained therein, and the height and depth, the
inconceivable purity and spirituality of it in all its branches.”(380)
Wesley declared the perfect harmony of the law and the gospel. “There is,
therefore, the closest connection that can be conceived, between the law
and the gospel. On the one hand, the law continually makes way for, and
points us to, the gospel; on the other, the gospel continually leads us to
a more exact fulfilling of the law. The law, for instance, requires us to
love God, to love our neighbor, to be meek, humble, or holy. We feel that
we are not sufficient for these things; yea, that ‘with man this is
impossible:’ but we see a promise of God to give us that love, and to make
us humble, meek, and holy: we lay hold of this gospel, of these glad
tidings; it is done unto us according to our faith; and ‘the righteousness
of the law is fulfilled in us,’ through faith which is in Christ Jesus....
“In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ,” said Wesley,
“are they who openly and explicitly ‘judge the law’ itself, and ‘speak
evil of the law;’ who teach men to break (to dissolve, to loose, to untie
the obligation of) not one only, whether of the least or of the greatest,
but all the commandments at a stroke.... The most surprising of all the
circumstances that attend this strong delusion, is that they who are given
up to it, really believe that they honor Christ by overthrowing His law,
and that they are magnifying His office while they are destroying His
doctrine! Yea, they honor Him just as Judas did when he said, ‘Hail,
Master, and kissed Him.’ And He may as justly say to every one of them,
‘Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’ It is no other than betraying
Him with a kiss, to talk of His blood, and take away His crown; to set
light by any part of His law, under pretense of advancing His gospel. Nor
indeed can any one escape this charge, who preaches faith in any such a
manner as either directly or indirectly tends to set aside any branch of
obedience: who preaches Christ so as to disannul, or weaken in any wise,
the least of the commandments of God.”(381)
To those who urged that “the preaching of the gospel answers all the ends
of the law,” Wesley replied: “This we utterly deny. It does not answer the
very first end of the law, namely, the convincing men of sin, the
awakening those who are still asleep on the brink of hell.” The apostle
Paul declares that “by the law is the knowledge of sin;” “and not until
man is convicted of sin, will he truly feel his need of the atoning blood
of Christ.... ‘They that be whole,’ as our Lord Himself observes, ‘need
not a physician, but they that are sick.’ It is absurd, therefore, to
offer a physician to them that are whole, or that at least imagine
themselves so to be. You are first to convince them that they are sick;
otherwise they will not thank you for your labor. It is equally absurd to
offer Christ to them whose heart is whole, having never yet been
broken.”(382)
Thus while preaching the gospel of the grace of God, Wesley, like his
Master, sought to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Faithfully did
he accomplish the work given him of God, and glorious were the results
which he was permitted to behold. At the close of his long life of more
than fourscore years—above half a century spent in itinerant ministry—his
avowed adherents numbered more than half a million souls. But the
multitude that through his labors had been lifted from the ruin and
degradation of sin to a higher and a purer life, and the number who by his
teaching had attained to a deeper and richer experience, will never be
known till the whole family of the redeemed shall be gathered into the
kingdom of God. His life presents a lesson of priceless worth to every
Christian. Would that the faith and humility, the untiring zeal,
self-sacrifice, and devotion of this servant of Christ, might be reflected
in the churches of to-day!
15. THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
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