SESSION 1

John Wesley: Seeker after God

*** INTRODUCTION

Half jestingly and half seriously, it has been said that the family from which John and Charles Wesley sprang was partially healthy, never wealthy, and sometimes wise. Regarding health, only ten of the nineteen children born to Susanna and Samuel Wesley survived infancy. As for wealth, the family lived in virtual poverty, and often Susanna Wesley did not know where the next family meal would come from. In the matter of wisdom, the parents sometimes made mistakes with their children (treating them as small adults). Despite a less than ideal home, Samuel and Susanna Wesley bequeathed to their children a well-above-average intellectual and spiritual heritage. Two of the Wesley children became persons of renown. John Wesley was the most important religious leader in eighteenth-century England, and Charles Wesley's poetic gifts enabled him to write some of Christianity's most enduring hymns.

Samuel Wesley, the father, was an Oxford-educated scholar, a Church of England rector, and a poet. One of the few of Samuel's papers that survived the 1709 fire that destroyed the Epworth rectory was his hymn "Behold the Savior of Mankind," which appears in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal. Samuel tutored his sons in Latin and Greek, also teaching them the art of verse. His chief concern was to teach his children about God. When the sixty-nine-year-old Samuel Wesley lay dying, he said to John, "The inward witness, son, the inward witness—this is the proof, the strongest proof, of Christianity." The old man laid his hand on the head of Charles and exclaimed, "Be steady! The Christian faith will surely revive in this kingdom; you shall see it, though I shall not."

Susanna Wesley had a profound influence on her children. A British scholar described her as "very beautiful, and very clever, and very good." John Wesley was her fifteenth child, and Charles Wesley was her eighteenth. She remained serene even through multiple pregnancies and the household's continual poverty. As soon as her children could speak, she taught them the Lord's Prayer. Early in childhood, they memorized portions of the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. Susanna devoted six hours a day to home-schooling her children (she wrote her own curriculum). She diligently attended to their religious nurture (weekly, she met privately with each of her offspring). She kept a journal, wrote letters, educational and catechetical writings, and commentaries on the Apostles' Creed and the Ten Commandments. Even in John Wesley's adult life, he continued to consult with his mother for counsel and advice.

In 1724 she wrote John, then at Oxford, about his struggle to find the full assurance of faith. Her letter said, "Happy are you ... now in good earnest resolve to make religion the business of your life. For, after all, that is the one thing that strictly speaking is necessary.... I heartily wish you would now enter upon a serious examination of yourself, that you may know whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation by Jesus Christ, that is, whether you are in a state of faith and repentance or not." Less than two years before Susanna died, she wrote Charles Wesley: "I know not what other opinion people may have of human nature, but for my part I think that without the grace of God we are utterly incapable of thinking, speaking or doing anything good." Susanna Wesley was one of the greatest mothers in the history of the English people.

At the age of ten and a half years, John Wesley was sent by his parents to Charterhouse, a respected boarding school in London. There, he received an excellent education in classical literature, especially in Latin and Greek. His six years at Charterhouse prepared him to enter Oxford's Christ Church College in January of 1720. Because of John's scholarly achievements, in 1726 the university's Lincoln College elected him a fellow. He taught Greek, moral philosophy, and Scripture. He also diligently included religious instruction in his tutoring, hoping to make his students better men. He allowed himself some social diversions, yet he put religion first. He arose between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. daily to read the Scriptures and pray. His work at Oxford's Lincoln College earned him respect as a superior tutor.

While at Lincoln College, Wesley read the works of several German Pietists who stressed the lordship of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They also emphasized the importance of overcoming the fear of death and the opinions of others. He had not yet experienced a personal spiritual transformation, called "the new birth." He said, "I saw the indispensable necessity of having the mind which was in Christ and of walking as He walked ... in all things."

Wesley's reading of Christian devotional writers encouraged him to seek entire sanctification. He wrote, "I [took communion] every week. I watched against all sin, whether in word or deed. I began to aim at, and pray for inward holiness." Yet Wesley felt depressed because he fell short of the spiritual goals he sought. Time and again, he wrote in his diary about his weaknesses, such as idleness and undisciplined reading. He set rules and regulations for himself, with the hope they would better his life and make him more pleasing to God. His concerns with trifles reveal that he was too introspective and that he trusted in his own efforts more than in Jesus Christ.

At Oxford he joined the "Holy Club" and soon became its leader. The group read the Latin and Greek classics, lived austerely, and gave sacrificially to the poor. They also visited jails and, out of their own meager incomes, provided prisoners with religious literature, food, clothing, and coal. Many were in prison due to their debts, and the Holy Club raised money to pay their creditors. The prisoners' families often lived with them in the jails, and the members of the Holy Club started a school for the inmates' children. The members of the club observed all the church year's designated fasts, which few of the other university students or professors kept. Wesley and his friends attended almost every service of Holy Communion, in the hope that their religious observances and good works would bring them the assurance of salvation.

Opposition came to the members of the Holy Club, chiefly because the lives of its members were unspoken rebukes to the casual faith and undisciplined lives of the majority of the university community. Wesley's diaries substantiate his spiritual uneasiness. He often asked himself, "How can I love God with my whole heart? How can I achieve holiness of heart and life?" He read two books by William Law, whose writings recommended self-denial and acts of mortification. Law talked about a life of renunciation—including the rejection of popular literature, masquerades, playing cards, and the theatre.

Although Wesley enjoyed the academic atmosphere of Oxford, he suffered inner turmoil because of his unhappy spiritual state. His prayers seemed to bounce off an impenetrable ceiling. He lacked a sense of God's pardon, favor, and blessing, and he had no assurance that...