Famous People

Southland Times, Issue 21097, 31 May 1930, Page 23

Famous People

ONE-MINUTE BIOGRAPHIES. Who: JOHN WESLEY. Where: England. When: Eighteenth century. Why famous: A religious leader, the founder of Methodism. He came of a line of Nonconformist clergymen, though his own father returned to the Established Church. The mother, a woman of genuine piety and culture, gave her children vigorous training both religious and secular; and an influential friend secured the boy admission to the Charterhouse School in London, where, as at ? Oxford, Wesley left a splendid record. With the University he kept his connection even after he had definitely entered the ministry.

Wesley, with his brother Charles, George Whitefield and others, formed a club at the University for devout meditation and service; this club was the beginning of the Methodist movement. Soon Wesley was protesting that his parish must be the world, and to prove this he actually went to the New World as missionary to the Indians. Back in England, he greatly desired to preach, but believed himself unfit. It was then that an eloquent young Moravian preacher exhorted him: “Preach faith till you have it, and then because you have it you will preach it.” Thus Wesley began his real career, undertaking to help Whitefield in. the work of an evangelist, speaking to vast congregations in the open air. Wesley’s first field sermon was delivered on a hillside near Bristol, to an audience of 3000, his second at Blackheath, London, to 12,000. They marked the beginning of an evangelistic career such as the world had never known. In a comparatively few years the movement had spread to the remotest corners of the globe. Wesley possessed remarkablei’ executive ability, and he worked ceaselessly. For 60 years he rose each morning at four for study, and his first sermon was usually delivered at five; during many years he preached on an average of 800 sermons a year, sometimes, riding over 40 miles a day on horseback. So intent was he upon his high purpose that he could undergo all hardships. An astounding little man, of mighty presence and unflagging spirit. He knew no fear. It is said he could pass unscathed through threatening mobs.