The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 1 (of 3)Tyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 1 (of 3)
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Methodism; Wesley, John, 1703-1791
Wesley still felt intensely anxious respecting the heathen. In July he
met a Frenchman, who had lived several months among the Chicasaws, and
wrote to Dr. Humphreys as follows:—[188]
“Concerning the conversion of the heathen, where is the seed
sown, the _sanguis martyrum_? Do we hear of any who have sealed
the faith with their blood in all this vast continent? Or do
we read of any church flourishing in any age or nation without
this seed first sown there? Give me leave, sir, to speak my
thoughts freely. When God shall put it into the hearts of some
of His servants, whom He hath already delivered from earthly
hopes and fears, to join hand in hand in this labour of love;
when out of these He shall have chosen one or more, to magnify
Him in the sight of the heathen by dying, not with a stoical
or Indian indifference, but blessing and praying for their
murderers, and praising God in the midst of flame with joy
unspeakable and full of glory, then the rest, waxing bold by
their sufferings, shall go forth in the name of the Lord God,
and by the power of His might cast down every high thing that
exalteth itself against the faith of Christ. Then shall ye see
Satan, the grand ruler of this New World, as lightning fall
from heaven!”
Oh for missionaries like these! Wesley’s notions are right. Men going
merely because others send them, or men going merely to obtain a
livelihood, are not the men to convert the inhabitants of lands like
Africa, India, Japan, and China. To make an impression there, men must
be animated with the martyrs’ spirit. Church history, including the
history of missions, affords abundant proof of this. Mere duty-doing
ministers are bad enough in England, but they are vastly worse when
among the heathen. Money spent upon them there is worse than wasted;
for their cold perfunctory labours produce, upon the whole, a bad
effect instead of good. The greatest boon the church could now receive
from the hands of God would be a multiplication of ministers and
missionaries like those which Wesley was sighing for in Georgia.
From Wesley’s private manuscript journal, we learn that in July, by
going from house to house, he took a census of his parishioners, and
computed that there were in Savannah 518 inhabitants, of whom 149
were under sixteen years of age. Frederica was without a minister,
though three hundred acres of land had been granted by the trustees
for a church establishment in that unhappy town.[189] Other places
with scanty populations were equally destitute. New Ebenezer had the
Moravians; and Darien had Mr. M’Leod, a serious, resolute, and pious
Presbyterian: but this seems to have been all the ministerial agency
existing in Georgia. Hence the following letter, addressed by Wesley to
his friends at Oxford:—
“SAVANNAH, _September 8, 1737_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account