Through the Year with John Wesley

2007-08-21T10:53:00.001-04:00

AUGUST 16

I cannot easily part with those I love.
Letter, 22nd October, 1777

They (the Methodists) have many schools for teaching, reading, writing and arithmetic, but only one for teaching the higher parts of learning. This is kept in Kingswood, near Bristol, and contains about forty scholars.
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Each preacher has his food wherever he labours and twelve pounds a year for clothes and other expenses. If he is married, he has ten pounds a year for his wife. This money is raised by the voluntary contributions of the Societies. It is by these likewise that the poor are assisted where the allowance fixed by the laws of the land does not suffice. Accordingly the stewards of the Societies in London distribute seven or eight pounds weekly among the poor.
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There are only three Methodist societies in America. … There are five preachers there.
to Professor John Liden of Lund, 1769

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AUGUST 15

When I can learn nothing else, I like to learn the names of houses and villages as I pass them.
The Life of John Wesley by John Telford, p.272

You were never in your lives in so critical a situation as you are at this time. It is your part to be peacemakers, to be loving and tender to all, but to addict yourselves to no party. In spite of all solicitations, of rough or smooth words, say not one word against one or the other side. Keep yourselves pure, do all you can to help and soften all; but beware how you adopt another’s jar.

See that you act in full union with each other; this is of the utmost consequence. Not only let there be no bitterness or anger but no shyness or coldness between you.
to the Preachers in America, 1775

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AUGUST 14

Surely the people of this place* were highly favored. Mercy embraced them on every side.
Journal, 28th March, 1790
* -- Burslem

There is, indeed, a wide difference between the relation wherein you stand to the Americans and the relation wherein I stand to all the Methodists. … I am under God the father of the whole family. Therefore I naturally care for you all in a manner no other persons can do. Therefore I in a measure for you all …

But in one point, my dear brother, I am a little afraid both the Doctor* and you differ from me. I study to be little: you study to be great. I creep: you strut along. I found a school: you a college! Nay, and call it after your own names! …

One instance of this has given me great concern. How can you, how dare you suffer yourself to be called Bishop? I shudder, I start at the very thought! Men may call me a knave or a fool, a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content; but they shall never by my consent call me Bishop!
to Francis Asbury, 1788
* -- Thomas Coke

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AUGUST 13

At all times it is of use to have a Friend to whom you can pour out your heart without any disguise or reserve.
Letter, 12th November, 1776

Abstain from all spirituous liquors. Touch them not on any pretence whatever.
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Every day of your life take at least an hour’s exercise … If you can, take it in the open air.
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Sleep early and rise early, unless you are ill.
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Beware of anger! Beware of worldly sorrow! Beware of the fear that hath torment! Beware of foolish and hurtful desires! Beware of inordinate affection! Remember the command: “My son, give me thy heart!”
Thoughts on Nervous Disorders

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AUGUST 12

This doctrine* is the grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called Methodists; and for the sake of propagating this chiefly He appears to have raised us up.
Works, xiii. 9
* -- perfect love or entire sanctification

Is there no remedy for lowness of spirits? Undoubtedly there is, a most certain cure, if you are willing to pay the price for it. But this price is not silver or gold, nor anything purchasable thereby. If you would give all the substance of your house for it, it would be utterly despised. And all the medicines under the sun avail nothing in this distemper. The whole Materia Medica put together will do you no lasting service; they do not strike at the root of the disease; you must remove the cause, if you wish to remove the effect. But this cannot be done by your own strength; it can only be done by the mighty power of God. If you are convinced of this, set about it trusting in Him, and you will surely conquer.
Thoughts on Nervous Disorders

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AUGUST 11

Why are we more nervous than our forefathers? Because we lie longer in bed; they, rich and poor, slept about eight, when they heard the curfew bell, and rose at four; the bell ringing at that hour (as well as at eight) in every parish in England. …

Yet something may be allowed to irregular passions for these undoubtedly affect the body, the nerves in particular. Even violent joy, though it raises the spirits for a time, does afterwards sink them greatly. And everyone knows what an influence fear has upon our whole frame. Nay, even hope deferred maketh the heart grow sick, puts the mind all out of tune. The same effect have all foolish and hurtful desires. They pierce us through with may sorrows.
Thoughts on Nervous Disorders

But let the “righteousness which is of God by faith” be brought in, and so shall its proud waves be stayed.
Works, v.15

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AUGUST 10

1. Our design is, with God’s assistance, to train up children in all such things as are needful for them.
2. We take them between the ages of Six and Twelve in order to teach them Reading, Writing, and Sewing; and, if it be desired, the English Grammar, Arithmetic & other Sorts of Needlework.
3. It is our particular Desire, that all who are educated here, may be brought up in the fear of God; And at the utmost distance from Vice in general, so in particular from Idleness & Effeminacy. The Children therefore of tender parents so call’d 9who are indeed offering up their Sons and their Daughters unto Devils) have no Business here: for the rules will not be broken in favour of any person whatsoever. Nor is any Child received unless her parents agree, 1. That she shall observe all the Rules of the House, & 2. That they will not take her from School, no, not a Day, till they take her for good and all.
Rules for the Girls’ School at Kingswood

Can you empty the great deep drop by drop? Then you may reform us by dissuasives from particular vices.
Works, v.15

2007-08-08T16:25:00.002-04:00

AUGUST 9

Here was my first irregularity, and it was not voluntary but constrained. The second was extemporary prayer. This likewise I believed to be my bounden duty, for the sake of those who desired to watch over their souls. I could not in conscience refrain from it.

When the people joined together, simply to help each other to heaven, increased by hundreds and thousands, still they had no more thought of leaving the Church than of leaving the kingdom. Nay, I continually and earnestly cautioned them against it; reminding them that we were a part of the Church of England.
Separation from the Church

There are no Methodists that will bear no restraints. Explain this at large to the Society.
Works, xiii. 164

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AUGUST 8

From a child I was taught to love and reverence the Scriptures, the Oracles of God; and next to these, to esteem the Primitive Fathers, the Writers of the first three centuries. Next after the Primitive Church, I esteemed our own, the Church of England, as the most scriptural national Church in the world. I therefore, not only assented to all the doctrines , but observed all the rubric in the Liturgy; and that with all possible exactness.

In this judgment, and with this spirit, I went to America, strongly attached to the Bible, the Primitive Church, and the Church of England, from which I would not vary in one jot or tittle on any account whatever. In this spirit I returned as regular a clergyman as any in the three kingdoms; till after not being permitted to preach in the Churches, I was constrained to preach in the open air.
Separation from the Church

I can see nothing that I have done or suffered that will bear looking at. I have no other plea than this: I the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me.
Moore’s Life, II. 389

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AUGUST 7

When I have an opportunity of doing good, I will permit no man to tie my hands.
Reynolds’ Anecdotes of Wesley, p.25

I firmly believe I am a scriptural episcopos as much as any man in England or in Europe. For the Uninterrupted Succession I know to be a fable which no man ever did or can prove. ...

I submit still (though sometimes with a doubting conscience) to Mitred Infidels. I do indeed vary from them in some points of doctrine and in some points of discipline: (by preaching abroad, for instance, by praying extempore, and by forming Societies.) but not a hair’s breadth further than I believe to be meet, right and my bounden duty. I walk still by the same rule I have done for between forty and fifty years. I do nothing rashly. It is not likely I should. The high day of my blood is over.
Separation from the Church

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AUGUST 6

As to my own judgment, I still believe the episcopal form of Church government to be both scriptural and apostolical [sic], I mean, well agreeing with the practice and writings of the Apostles. But that it is prescribed in Scripture, I do not believe. This opinion, which I once zealously espoused, I have been heartily ashamed of, ever since I read Bishop Stillingfleet’s Irenicon. I think he has unanswerably proved that neither Christ nor His Apostles prescribe any particular form of Church government, and that the plea of divine right for diocesan episcopacy was never heard of in the Primitive Church.
to the Reverend James Clarke, 1756

If those who “gain all they can,” and “save all they can,” will likewise “give all they can”; then, the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven.
Works, xiii. 261

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AUGUST 5

We honour the blessed Virgin as the Mother of the holy Jesus, and as she was a person of eminent piety; but we do not think it lawful to give that honour to her which belongs not to a creature and doth equal her with the Redeemer … We read nothing in the Bible of her bodily assumption into heaven nor of her exaltation to a throne above the angels and archangels.

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We freely own that Christ is to be adored in the Lord’s Supper; but that the elements are to be adored, we deny.
Reply to the Roman Catechism

The sea breezes may be of service to you, if you have constant exercise.
Letter, 15th September, 1777

2007-08-08T16:18:00.000-04:00

AUGUST 4

It is a known principle of the Church of England that nothing is to be received as an article of faith, which is not read from the holy Scripture or to be inferred therefrom, by just and plain consequences.

. . . . . . . . . .

I lay this down as an undoubted truth: the more the doctrine of any Church agrees with the Scripture, the more readily ought it to be received. And on the other hand, the more the doctrine of any Church differs from the Scripture, the greater cause we have to doubt of it.
The Advantage of the Church of England

Joy you shall have, if joy be best.
Letter, 16th December, 1772

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AUGUST 3

My dear Friend, Consider, I am not persuading you to leave or change your religion, but to follow after that fear and love of God without which all religion is vain. I say not a word to you about your opinions or outward manner of worship; but I say all worship is an abomination to the Lord unless you worship Him in spirit and in truth, with your heart as well as your lips, with your spirit and your understanding also. …

We ought, without this endless jangling about opinions, to provoke one an other to love and to good works. Let the points wherein we differ stand aside; here are enough wherein we agree, enough to be the ground of every Christian temper and of every Christian action.
To a Roman Catholic

I am now nearly as I was before my illness; but, I hope, more determined to sell all for the pearl.
Letter, 31st July, 1775

2007-08-08T16:16:00.000-04:00

AUGUST 2

An evil practice is the depriving the laity of the Cup in the Lord’s Supper. It is acknowledged by all that our Lord instituted and delivered this Sacrament in both kinds, giving the wine as well as the bread to all that partook of it, and that it continued to be so delivered in the Church of Rome for above a thousand years. And yet, notwithstanding this, the Church of Rome now forbids the people to drink of the Cup. A more insolent and barefaced corruption cannot be easily conceived.

Another evil practice in the Church of Rome, utterly unheard of in the ancient Church, is that when there is none to receive the Lord’s Supper, the priest communicates it alone. (Indeed, it is not properly to communicate, when only one receives it.) This likewise is an absolute innovation in the Church of God.
Popery Calmly Considered

Oh what a pearl, of how great price, is the very lowest degree of the peace of God!
Works, xii. 170

2007-08-08T16:12:00.000-04:00

AUGUST 1

The greatest abuse of all in the Lord’s Supper is the worshipping the consecrated bread. And this the Church of Rome not only practices, but positively enjoins.

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A more dangerous error in the Church of Rome is the forbidding the clergy to marry. … The Apostle, on the contrary, says: “Marriage is honourable in all.”

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Lastly, what can more directly tend to destroy truth from off the earth, than the doctrine of the Church of Rome that “no faith is to be kept with heretics”?
Popery Calmly Considered

I believe the merciful God regards the lives and tempers of men more than their ideas. I believe He respects the goodness of the heart more than the clearness of the head.
Works, vii. 354

2007-08-08T16:10:00.000-04:00

JULY 31

We grant confession to men to be, in many cases, of use, public in case of public scandal; private to a spiritual guide for disburdening of the conscience, and as a help to repentance. But to make auricular confession or particular confession to a priest necessary to forgiveness and salvation, when God has not so made it, is apparently to teach for doctrine the commandment of men; and to make it necessary in all cases is to make of what may be a useful means, a dangerous snare, both to the confessor and those that confess.

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To pardon sin, and absolve the sinner judicially, so as the conscience may rest firmly upon it, is a power reserved by God to Himself.
Reply to the Roman Catechism

And invite all to this: one love, one present and eternal heaven.
Letter, 16th September, 1774

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JULY 30

Is not Rome the mother of all Churches? We answer, No. The word of the Lord went forth from Jerusalem. There the Church began. She therefore, not the Church of Rome, is the mother of all Churches. The Church of Rome, therefore, has no right to require any person to believe what she teaches on her sole authority.

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The Church of Rome is no more the Church in general than the Church of England is. It is only one particular branch of the Catholic or Universal Church of Christ, which is the whole body of believers in Christ, scattered over the whole earth. … In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church.
Popery Calmly Considered

Let your eye be single; aim still at one thing – holy loving faith; giving God the whole heart.
Letter, 16th September, 1774

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JULY 29

The Service of the Roman Church is everywhere performed in the Latin tongue, which is nowhere vulgarly understood … This irrational and unscriptural practice destroys the great end of public worship.

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Scripture and antiquity are flatly against transubstantiation. And so are our very senses.
Popery Calmly Considered

The Church of Rome does not scruple to impose upon the consciences of men, in the doctrine of the Mass, various traditions, that have no authority in holy writ.
The Advantage of the Church of England

The Methodists must take heed to their doctrine, their experience, their practice, and their discipline.
to Robert Miller, 1783

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JULY 28

By this time I should be some judge of man; and if I am, all England and Ireland cannot afford such a body of men, number for number, for sense and true experience both of men and things, as the body of Methodist preachers. Our leaders in London, Bristol and Dublin are by no means weal men. I would not be ashamed to compare them with a like number of tradesmen in every part of the three kingdoms. But I assure you they are no more than children compared to the preachers in Conference, as you would be thoroughly convinced could you but have the opportunity of spending one day among them.
to Alexander Clark, 1772

God keeps you long in this school that you may thoroughly learn to be meek and lowly in heart, and to seek all your happiness in God.
Letter, 27th January, 1776

2007-08-08T16:04:00.001-04:00

JULY 27

Here therefore my scruples are at an end, and I conceive myself at full liberty, as I violate no order and invade no man’s right, by appointing and sending labourers into the harvest. … And I have prepared a liturgy, little differing from the of the Church of England (I think the best constituted national Church in the world) which I advise all the travelling [sic] preachers to use on the Lord’s Day, in all the congregations, reading the litany only on Wednesdays and Fridays, and praying extempore on all other days. I also advise the elders to administer the Supper of the Lord on every Lord’s Day.

If anyone will point out a more rational and scriptural way of feeding and guiding those poor sheep in the wilderness, I will gladly embrace it.
To American Methodists, 1784

Look up, and receive a fresh supply of grace.
Letter, 2nd March, 1773

2007-08-08T16:04:00.000-04:00

2007-08-08T16:03:00.000-04:00

JULY 26

The Great Salvation is at hand, if you will receive it as the gift of God.
Letter, 21st April, 1787

Lord King’s Account of the Primitive Church convinced me many years ago that bishops and presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the same right to ordain. For many years I have been importuned from time to time to exercise this right, by ordaining part of our travelling [sic] preachers. But I have still refused; not only for peace sake, but because I was determined as little as possible to violate the established order of the national Church to which I belonged.

But the case is widely different between England and North America. Here there are bishops who have a legal jurisdiction. In America, there are none, neither any parish ministers. So that for some hundred miles together there is none either to baptise [sic] or administer the Lord’s Supper.
To American Methodists, 1784

2007-07-25T15:18:00.001-04:00

JULY 25

I went to a gentleman who is much troubled with what they call lowness of spirits. Many such have I been with before; but in several of them it was no bodily distemper. They wanted something, they knew not what; and were therefore heavy, uneasy, and dissatisfied with everything. The plain truth is, they wanted God, they wanted Christ, they wanted faith; and God convinced them of their want, in a way their physicians no more understood than themselves. Accordingly nothing availed till the great Physician came. For in spite of all natural means, He who made them for Himself would not suffer them to rest till they rested in Him.
Journal, 13th July, 1739

With what is past, or what is to come, we have little to do. Now is the day of Salvation.
Letter, 21st April, 1787

2007-07-25T15:17:00.000-04:00

JULY 24

A loving word, spoken in faith, shall not fall to the ground.
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You have this treasure in an earthen vessel; you dwell in a poor shattered house of clay, which presses down the immortal spirit.
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The knowledge of ourselves is true humility; and without this we cannot be freed from vanity.
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It is a great thing to spend all our time to the glory of God.
Letter to Miss March, 1760-77

See that you be not ashamed of a good Master, nor of the least of His servants.
Letter, 18th January, 1776

2007-07-25T15:16:00.001-04:00

JULY 23

I am now, and have been from my youth, a member and minister of the Church of England. And I have no desire to separate from it till my soul separates from my body. Yet if I were not permitted to remain therein without omitting what God requires me to do, it would then become meet and right and my bounden duty to separate from it without delay. To be more particular, I know God has committed me a dispensation of the Gospel. Yea, and my own salvation depends upon preaching it. “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.” If then I could not remain in the Church without omitting this, without desisting from preaching the Gospel, I should be under the necessity of separating from it or losing my own soul.
Schism

Blessed be God, I do not slack my labour; I can preach and write still.
Journal, 1st January, 1790

2007-07-25T15:14:00.000-04:00

JULY 22

In like manner, if I could not continue united to any smaller Society, Church or body of Christians, without committing sin, without lying and hypocrisy, without preaching to others doctrines which I did not myself believe, I should be under an absolute necessity of separating from that Society. And in all these cases the sin of separation, with all the evils consequent upon it, would not lie upon me, but upon those who constrained me to make that separation, by requiring of me such terms of communion as I could not in conscience comply with. But setting aside this case, suppose the Church or Society to which I am now united, does not require me to do anything which the Scripture forbids, or to omit anything which the Scripture enjoins, it is then my indispensable duty to continue therein.
Schism

Envy will invent a thousand things, and with the most plausible circumstances.
Letter, 9th November, 1787

2007-07-20T18:22:00.000-04:00

JULY 21

I have spoken the more explicitly upon this head because it is so little understood; because so many of those who profess much religion, nay, and really enjoy a measure of it, have not the least conception of this matter, neither imagine such a separation to be any sin at all. They leave a Christian Society with as much unconcern as they would go out of one room into another. They give occasion to all this complicated mischief; and wipe their mouth, and say they have done no evil! Whereas they are justly chargeable before God and man, both with an action that is evil in itself, and with all the evil consequences which may be expected to follow, to themselves, to their brethren and to the world.
Schism

Leave that with Him. The success is His. The work only is yours. Your point is this – work your work betimes; and in His time He will give you a full reward.
Letter, 4th November, 1774

2007-07-20T18:21:00.001-04:00

JULY 20

Keep to the whole Methodist discipline whoever is pleased or displeased.
Letter, 29th April, 1776

The whole body of Roman Catholics define schism, a separation from the Church of Rome; and almost all our own writers define it, a separation from the Church of England. Thus both the one and the other set out wrong and stumble at the very threshold. …

The immense pains which have been taken both by Papists and Protestants in writing whole volumes against schisms as a separation whether from the Church of Rome or from the Church of England, have been employed to mighty little purpose. They have been fighting with shadows of their own raising.
Schism

2007-07-20T18:20:00.001-04:00

JULY 19

Do not rashly tear asunder the sacred ties which unite you to any Christian Society. … Take care how you rend the Body of Christ, by separating from your brethren. It is a thing evil in itself. It is a sore evil in its consequences.

Beware of countenancing or abetting and Parties in a Christian Society. Never encourage, much less cause, either by word or action, any division therein. … Leave off contention before it is meddled with; shun the very beginning of strife.

Happy is he that attains the character of a peacemaker in the Church of God.
Schism

Never deny, never conceal, never speak doubtfully of what God hath wrought.
Letter, 12th November, 1776

2007-07-18T17:25:00.003-04:00

JULY 18

10. Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And, in general, do not mend our rules, but keep them: not for wrath but for conscience’ sake.

11. You have nothing to do but to save souls; therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go always, not to those that want you, but to those that want you most.

12. Act in all things, not according to your own will, but as a son in the Gospel; as such, it is your part to employ your time in the manner which we direct; partly in preaching and visiting from house to house; partly in reading, meditation and prayer. Above all, if you labour with us in our Lord’s vineyard, it is needful that you should do that part of the work which we advise, at those times and places which we judge most for His glory.
Rules of a Helper

2007-07-18T17:25:00.001-04:00

JULY 17

6. Speak evil of no one; else your word especially would eat as doth a canker. Keep your thoughts within your own breast till you come to the person concerned.

7. Tell everyone what you think wrong in him, and that plainly, and as soon as may be, else it will fester in your heart. Make all haste to cast the fire out of your bosom.

8. Do not affect the gentleman. You have no more to do with his character than with that of a dancing-master. A preacher of the Gospel is a servant of all.

9. Be ashamed of nothing but sin; not of fetching wood (if time permit), or of drawing water; not of cleaning your own shoes or your neighbor’s.
Rules of a Helper

2007-07-18T17:24:00.001-04:00

JULY 16

Keep your rules, and they will keep you.
Letter, 9th November, 1787

1. Be diligent. Never be unemployed a moment. Never be trifilingly [sic] employed. Never while away time; neither spend any more at any place than is strictly necessary.

2. Be serious. Let your motto be: Holiness to the Lord. Avoid all lightness, jesting and foolish talking.

3. Converse sparingly and cautiously with women; particularly with young women in private.

4. Take no step toward marriage without first acquainting us with your design.

5. Believe evil of no one, unless you see it done, take heed how you credit it. Put the best construction on everything. You know the judge is always supposed to be on the prisoner’s side.
Rule of a Helper

2007-07-18T17:23:00.002-04:00

JULY 15

It is true, this cannot be done on a sudden; but it may between this and the next Conference. And even as to the drops that many have sold, if their wives sell them at home, well; but it is not proper for any preacher to hawk them about; it has a bad appearance; it does not suit well the dignity of his calling.

Two years after, it was agreed by all our brethren, that no preacher who will not relinquish his trade of buying and selling or of making and vending pills, drops, balsams or medicines of any kind, shall (not) be considered as a travelling [sic] preacher any longer; and that it shall be demanded of all those preachers who have traded in cloth, hardware, pills, drops, balsams or medicines of any kind, at the next Conference whether they have entirely left it off or not.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

We cannot impute too much to divine Providence, unless we make it interfere with our free agency.
Letter, 26th April, 1777

2007-07-18T17:23:00.001-04:00

JULY 14

Should our helpers follow trades?

This is an important question; therefore it will be proper to consider it thoroughly. The question is not whether they may occasionally work with their hands, as St. Paul did; but whether it be proper for them to keep shop and follow merchandise. Of those who do so at present, it may be observed, they are unquestionably upright men; they are men of considerable gifts. We see the fruit of their labour, and they have a large share in the esteem and love of the people. All this pleads on their side, and cannot but give us a prejudice in their favor. … But where will it stop? If one preacher follow trade, so may twenty; so may every one. And if any of them trade a little, why not ever so much? Who can fix how far he should go? Therefore, we advise our brethren who have been concerned herein, to give up all, and attend to the one business.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

Every believer ought to enjoy life.
Letter, 27th July, 1787

2007-07-11T15:21:00.000-04:00

JULY 13

The sum is: Go into every house, in course, and teach every one therein, young and old, if they belong to us, to be Christians inwardly and outwardly.

Make every particular plain to their understanding. Fix it in their memory. Write it on their heart. In order to (do) this, there must be “line upon line, precept upon precept.” I remember to have heard my father ask my mother: “How could you have the patience to tell that blockhead the same thing twenty times over?” She answered: “Why, if I had told him but nineteen times, I should have lost all my labour.” What patience indeed, what love, what knowledge is requisite for this!
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

Oh let no man think his labor of love is lost because the fruit does not immediately appear.
Journal, 13th June, 1742

2007-07-11T15:20:00.000-04:00

JULY 12

Which is the best method of preaching?
i. to invite. ii. to convince. iii. to offer Christ. iv. to build up; and to do this, in some measure, in every sermon.
1. Be sure to begin and end, precisely at the time appointed.
2. Endeavour to be serious, weighty and solemn in your whole deportment before the congregation.
3. Always suit your subject to the audience.
4. Choose the plainest texts you can.
5. Take care not to ramble from your text, but keep close to it, and make out from it what you take in hand.
6. Beware of allegorizing or spiritualizing too much.
7. Take care of anything awkward or affected, either in your phrase, gesture or pronunciation.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

However tempted thereto by profit or pleasure, contract no intimacy with worldy-minded men.
Letter, 1st August, 1786

2007-07-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

JULY 11

Build all the preaching-houses, if the ground will permit, in the octagon form. It is best for the voice, and, on many accounts more commodious than any other. Let the roof arise one-third of the breadth; this is the true proportion. Have windows and doors enough; and let all the windows be sashed, opening downward. Let there be no tub-pulpit, but a square projection, with a long seat behind. Let there be no backs to the seats, which should have aisles on each side, and be parted in the middle by a rail running along, to divide the men from the women.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

If we could bring all our preachers, itinerant and local, uniformly and steadily to insist on those two points, Christ dying for us, and Christ reigning in us, we should shake the trembling gates of hell.
Letter, 28th December, 1774

2007-07-09T09:29:00.001-04:00

JULY 10

Believing is the act of man, but it is the gift of God.
to T. Lessey, 7th January, 1787

Gaining knowledge is a good thing; but saving souls is better. … You will have abundant time for gaining other knowledge if you spend all your mornings therein. Only sleep not more than you need; talk not more than you need; and never be idle, nor triflingly [sic] employed. But if you can do but one, either following your studies or by instructing the ignorant, let your studies alone. I would throw all the libraries in the world rather than be guilty of the perdition of one soul.
. . . . . . . . . . .
True, it is far easier to preach a good sermon than to instruct the ignorant in the principles of religion.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

2007-07-09T09:27:00.000-04:00

JULY 9

In the meantime it is your wisdom to make the full use of those which you have.
Letter, 1st August, 1786

Question: Do you not entail a schism on the Church? i.e. is it not probable that your hearers, after your death, will be scattered into all sects and parties, or that they will form themselves into a distinct sect?

Answer: 1. We are persuaded the body of our hearers will, even after our death, remain in the Church, unless they be thrust out.
2. We believe, notwithstanding, either that they will be thrust out, or that they will leaven the whole Church.
3. We do, and will do, all we can to prevent those consequences which are supposed likely to happen after our death.
4. but we cannot, with a good conscience, neglect the present opportunity of saving souls while we live, for fear of consequences which may possibly or probably happen after we are dead.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

2007-07-08T08:08:00.000-04:00

JULY 8

It is desired that all things be considered as in the immediate presence of God. That we may meet with a single eye, and as little children, who have everything to learn; that every point which is proposed may be examined to the foundation: that every person may speak freely whatever is in his heart; and that every question that arises may be thoroughly debated and settled …

While we are conversing let us have an especial care to set God always before us. In the intermediate hours, let us redeem all the time we can for private exercises. Therein let us give ourselves to prayer for one another and for a blessing on this our labour.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

If He sees, and when He sees best, He will put more talents into your hands.
Letter, 1st August, 1786

2007-06-29T10:58:00.000-04:00

JULY 7

The greatest hindrances … you are to expect from the rich or cowardly or lazy Methodists. But regard them not, neither stewards, leaders nor people. Whenever the weather will permit, go out, in God’s name, into the most public places, and call all to repent and believe the Gospel; every Sunday in particular.

Question: What may we reasonably expect to be God’s design in raising up the preachers called Methodists?
Answer: To reform the nation, particularly the Church; to spread Scriptural holiness over the land.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

A little fatigue I do not regard, but I cannot afford to lose time.
Letter, 17th February, 1776

2007-06-29T10:57:00.001-04:00

JULY 6

Then many of the Methodists growing rich, became lovers of the present world. Next they married unawakened or half-awakened wives, and conversed with their relations. Hence, worldly prudence, maxims, customs, crept back upon them, producing more and more conformity to the world. Hence followed gross neglect of relative duties, especially education of children. And this is not easily cured by the Preachers.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

The poor are the Christians. Let us take care to lay up our treasure in heaven.
Letter, 30th September, 1786

2007-06-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

JULY 5

What servants, journeymen, labourers, carpenters, bricklayers, do as they would be done by? Which of them does as much work as he can? Set him down for a knave that does not.

Who does as he would be done by, in buying and selling, particularly in selling horses? Write him knave that does not. And the Methodist knave is the worst of all knaves.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

Be honest, not purloining, not secreting or privately keeping back anything for yourself; not taking, using, disposing or giving away the least thing belonging to your employer, without his leave, without his knowledge and consent first asked and then obtained. To do otherwise is no better then plain theft and cuts off all pretensions to honesty. Equally dishonest it is to hurt or waste anything, or to let it be lost through your carelessness or negligence.
Directions to Servants

The righteousness of Christ is necessary to entitle us to heaven, personal holiness to qualify us for it.
Works, vii. 314

2007-06-29T10:55:00.002-04:00

JULY 4

For what avails public preaching alone, though we could preach like angels?

I heard Dr. Lupton say, my father, visiting one of his parishioners, who had never missed going to Church for forty years, then lying on his death-bed, asked him: “Thomas, where do you think your soul will go?” “Soul! Soul!” said Thomas. “Yes, do you not know what your soul is?” “Aye, surely,” said he, “Why, it is a little bone in the back, that lives longer than the rest of the body.” So much Thomas had learned by constantly hearing good sermons, for forty years!
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

It is a rule with me to take nothing ill that is well meant.
Letter, 25th September, 1757

2007-06-29T10:55:00.001-04:00

JULY 3

After all our preaching, many of our people are almost as ignorant as if they had never heard the Gospel. I study to speak as plainly as I can; yet I frequently meet with those who have been my hearers for many years, who know not whether Christ be God or man; or that infant shave any original sin. And how few are there that know the nature of repentance, faith and holiness! Most of them have a sort of confidence that Christ will justify and save them, while the world has their hearts, and they live to themselves. And I have found, by experience, that one of these has learned more from an hour’s close discourse than from ten years’ public preaching.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

You may line in and to Jesus; yea, and that continually, by simple faith, and holy, humble love.
Letter, 12th August, 1769

2007-06-29T10:53:00.000-04:00

JULY 2

What cause have we to bleed before the Lord this day, that have so long neglected this great and good work! That have been preachers so many years, and have done so little by personal instruction for the saving of men’s souls! If we had but set on this work sooner, how many more might have been brought to Christ! And how much holier and happier might we have made our Societies before now! And why might we have not done it sooner? There were many hindrances in the way; and so there are still, and always will be; but the greatest hindrance was in ourselves, in our dulness [sic] and littleness of faith and love.
Minutes of Conversations, 1744

You like to be honored, but had you not rather be beloved?
Works, vii. 146

2007-06-29T10:52:00.001-04:00

JULY 1

On the notice of my death, let all the preachers in England and Ireland repair to London within six weeks.

Let them seek god by solemn fasting and prayer.

Let them draw up articles of agreement to be signed by those who choose to act in concert.

Let those be dismissed who do not choose it in the most friendly manner possible.

Let them choose by votes a committee of three, five or seven, each of whom is to be Moderator in his turn.

Let the Committee do what I do now; propose preachers to be tried, admitted or excluded; fix the place of each preacher for the ensuing year and the time of the next Conference.
To The Travelling [sic] Preachers, 1769

How amiable is courtesy joined to sincerity!
Wesley Studies, p.203

2007-06-29T09:36:00.001-04:00

JUNE 30

How soon may you hear “the voice that speaks Jehovah near!” Why shall it not be today?
Letter, 26th January, 1774

You are at present one body. You act in concert with each other and by united councils. And now is the time to consider what can be done in order to continue this union. Indeed, as long as I live there will be no great difficulty. I am, under God, a centre of union to all our travelling [sic] as well as local preachers. …

Those who desire or seek any earthly thing, whether honour, profit or ease, will not, cannot continue in the Connexion; it will not answer their design. Some of them, perhaps a fourth of the whole number, will secure preferment in the Church. Others will turn Independents, and get separate congregations.
To The Travelling [sic] Preachers, 1769

2007-06-29T09:32:00.000-04:00

JUNE 29

Keep at the utmost distance from foolish desires, from desiring any happiness but in God.
Works, xi, 462

I find no decay in my hearing, smell, taste or appetite (though I want but a third of the food I did once), nor do I feel any such thing as weariness, either in traveling or preaching. And I am not conscious of any decay in writing sermons, which I do as readily and, I believe, as correctly as ever.

To what causes can I impute this, that I am as I am? First, doubtless to the power of God, fitting me for the work to which I am called, as long as he pleases to continue me therein; and next, subordinately to this, to the prayers of His children.
Journal, 28th June, 1782

2007-06-17T08:28:00.000-04:00

JUNE 28

I entered into my eightieth year; but, blessed be God, my time is not “labour and sorrow.” I find no more pain or bodily infirmities than at five-and-twenty.
Journal, 28th June, 1782

I this day enter on my eighty-fifth year. And what cause have I to praise God as for a thousand spiritual blessings, so for bodily blessings also! How little have I suffered yet by “the rush of numerous years.” It is true, I am not so agile as I was in times past; I do not run or walk so fast as I did. My sight is a little decayed. My left eye is grown dim and hardly serves me to read. I have daily some pain in the ball of my right eye, as also in my right temple (occasioned by a blow received some months since), and in my right shoulder and arm, which I impute partly to a sprain and partly to the rheumatism. I find likewise some decay in my memory. …
Journal, 28th June, 1788

2007-06-17T08:27:00.000-04:00

JUNE 27

Nothing but the mighty power of God can enable him (John Howard) to go through his difficult and dangerous employments. But what can hurt us, if God is on our side?
Journal, 28th June, 1787

Without putting on spectacles (which, blessed be God, I do not wear) I can read a little Latin still.
Freeman’s Journal, 1780

I can face the north wind at seventy-seven better than I could at seven and twenty.
to Samuel Bradburn, 1781

This is the last day of my seventy-eighth year; and (such is the power of God) I fell as if it were my twenty-eighth.
to Charles Wesley, 1781

I am half blind and half lame; but by the help of God I creep on still.
to Thomas Greathead, 1791

2007-06-17T08:26:00.000-04:00

JUNE 26

You are encompassed with ten thousand mercies; let these sink you into humble thankfulness.
Letter, 26th April, 1777

How impossible it is for a man to see things right when he is angry? Does not passion blind the eyes of the understanding as smoke does the bodily eyes? And how little of the truth can we learn from those who see nothing but through a cloud?

Correction must not be given in anger; if it be so, it will lose its effect on the child, who will think he is corrected, not because he has done a fault, but because the parent is angry.
The Duties of Husbands and Wives, 1770

2007-06-17T08:24:00.001-04:00

JUNE 25

Beware of indulging gloomy thoughts: they are the bane of thoughtfulness.
Letter, 26th April, 1777

I know not that you have anything to do with fear. Your continual prayer should be for faith and love. I admire a holy man in France who, considering the state of one who was full of doubts and fears, forbade him to think of his sins at all, and ordered him to think only of the love of God in Christ. The fruit was, all his fears vanished away, and he lived and died in the triumph of his faith.
to Mary Bishop, 1770

You fear when no fear is.
to Zachariah Yewdall, 1782

Do right and fear nothing.
to William Holmes, 1788

2007-06-17T08:23:00.001-04:00

JUNE 24

I abhor the thought of giving to twenty men the power to place or displace the preachers in their congregations. How would he then dare to speak an unpleasing truth? And if he did, what would become of him? This must never be the case, while I live, among the Methodists. … The point must be carried for the Methodist preachers now or never; and I alone can carry it; which I will, God being my helper.
to Samuel Bradburn, 1782

Many years ago, one informed me at London: “The stewards have discovered they are not your stewards, but the people’s, and are to direct, not be directed by you.” The next Sunday I let them drop, and named seven other stewards.

No contentious person shall for the future meet in any Conference. They may dispute elsewhere if they please.
to Thomas Wride, 1785

Still be ready to do and to suffer the whole will of God.
Letter, 21st January, 1777

2007-06-17T08:22:00.001-04:00

JUNE 23

As long as I live the people shall have no share in choosing either stewards or leaders among the Methodists. We have not and never had any such custom. We are no republicans and never intend to be. It would be better for those that are so minded to go quietly away. I have been uniform both in doctrine and discipline for above these fifty years; and it is a little too late for me to turn to a new path now I am grey-headed.
to John Mason, 1790

It is not possible to avoid all pleasure even of sense, without destroying the body; neither doth God require it at our hands.
Works, xi. 461

2007-06-17T08:21:00.000-04:00

JUNE 22

I must declare what I find in the Book.
Journal, 2nd November, 1772

Can any man seriously think I despise learning who has ever heard of the school at Kingswood? especially if he knows with how much care and expense and labour I have kept it on foot these twenty years? Let him but read the rules of Kingswood School, and he will urge this objection no more. …

I do not depreciate learning of any kind. The knowledge of the languages is a valuable talent, so is the knowledge of the arts and sciences. Both the one and the other may be employed to the glory of God and the good of man. But yet I ask, Where hath God declared in His Word that He cannot or will not make us e of men that have it not? … You know the apostles themselves, all except St. Paul, were common, unphilosophical, unlettered men.
to Dr. Thomas Rutherford, 1768

2007-06-17T08:20:00.000-04:00

JUNE 21

I have sometimes thought you are a little like me. My wife used to tell me: “My dear, you are too generous. You don’t know the value of money.” I could not wholly deny the charge. Possibly you may sometimes lean to the extreme. I know you are of a generous spirit. You have an open heart and an open hand. But may it no sometimes be too open, more so than your circumstances will allow.

Is it not an instance of Christian (as well as worldly) prudence, to cut our coat according to our cloth? If your circumstances are a little narrower, should you not contract your expenses too? I need but just give you this hint, which I doubt not you will take kindly.
to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Charles Wesley, 1788

On Scripture and common sense I build all my principles.
to Samuel Sparrow, 1773

2007-06-17T08:19:00.000-04:00

JUNE 20

It is a stated rule in interpreting Scripture, never to depart from the plain, literal sense, unless it applies an absurdity.
The Church

There are two general ways wherein it pleases God to lead His children to perfection: Doing and Suffering. And let Him take one or the other, we are assured His way is best.
Letter, 17th February, 1774

2007-06-17T08:18:00.000-04:00

JUNE 19

This is my answer to them that trouble me, and will not let my grey hairs go down to the grave in peace. I am not a man of duplicity; I am not an old hypocrite, a double-tongued knave. … I have no temporal end to serve. I seek not the honour that cometh of men. It is not for pleasure that at this time of life I travel three or four thousand miles a year.
to The Dublin Chronicle, 1789

Leisure and I have taken leave of one another; I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long indulged to me. In health and sickness I hope I shall ever continue with the same sincerity.
to his brother Samuel, 1726

Dost thou love and serve God? It is enough. I give thee the right hand of fellowship.
Works, viii. 347

2007-06-17T08:17:00.000-04:00

JUNE 18

I advise you: (1) be electrified (if need be) eight or ten times. (2) keep your body always open, and that by food (as baked, boiled or roasted apples) rather than by physic. (3) Wash your head every morning with cold water, and rub it well with coarse hempen towel. (4) I advise you and Sister Taylor to breakfast three or four weeks on nettle tea. Then you will find preaching, especially in the morning, one of the noblest medicines in the world.
to Thomas Taylor, 1775

O John, pray for an advisable and teachable temper.
Letter, 28th July, 1775

2007-06-17T05:27:00.001-04:00

JUNE 17

I am glad you come a little nearer the good old Emperor’s advice: “Throw away that thirst for books.”* That thirst is the symptom of an evil disease; and “his own indulgence makes the dreadful dropsy grow.”** What is the real value of a thing but the price it will bear in eternity! Let no study swallow up or entrench upon the hours of private prayer. Nothing is of so much importance. Simplify both religion and every part of learning as much as possible. Be all alive to God, and you will be useful to men.
to Joseph Benson, 1770

* - Marcus Aurelius ** - Horace

O what a deal of work has our Lord to do here on earth! And may we be workers together with Him!
to Letter, 13th May, 1774

2007-06-10T05:33:00.001-04:00

JUNE 16

I impose my opinions on none. … I make no opinion the term of union with any man; I think and let think. What I want is holiness of heart and life.

. . . . . . . . .

I desire to have a league offensive and defensive, with every soldier of Christ. We have not only one faith, one hope, one Lord, but are directly engaged in one warfare. We are carrying the war into the devil’s own quarters, who therefore summons all his hosts to war. Come then, ye that love Him, to the help of the Lord against the mighty!
to the Rev. J. Venn, 1763

You work for a generous Master. Fight on and conquer all.
Works, xii. 395; Letter, 16th December, 1772

2007-06-10T05:32:00.001-04:00

JUNE 15

In the evening I went to a Society in Wapping, weary in body and faint in spirit. I intended to speak on Romans 3:19, but could not tell how to open my mouth; and, all the time we were singing, my mind was full of some place, I knew not where, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. I begged God to direct, and opened the book on Hebrews 10:19: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, – let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Journal, 15th June, 1739

This is the work which I know God has called me to; and sure I am that His blessing attends it.
Journal, 11th June, 1739

2007-06-10T05:31:00.001-04:00

JUNE 14

A true Protestant believes in God, has a full confidence of His mercy, fears Him with a filial fear, and loves Him with all his soul. He worships God in spirit and in truth; in everything gives Him thanks; calls upon Him with his heart as well as his lips at all times and in all places; honours His holy Name and His Word, and serves Him truly all the days of his life.
To A Roman Catholic

The doing all which religion requires will not lessen, but immensely increase, our happiness.
Works, vii. 500

2007-06-10T05:30:00.000-04:00

JUNE 13

When I had lived upwards of thirty years, I looked upon myself to stand just in the same relation to my father as I did when I was ten years old. And when I was between forty and fifty, I judged myself fully as much obliged to obey my mother in everything lawful, as I did when I was in my leading-strings.

. . . . . . . . .

Do nothing which you know your parents disapprove.

. . . . . . . . .

I call those cruel parents, who pass for kind and indulgent; who permit their children to contract habits which they know must be afterwards broken.
Obedience to Parents

I frequently find a want of more light; but I want heat more than light.
Letter, 3rd May, 1777

2007-06-10T05:29:00.000-04:00

JUNE 12

I allow that what is commonly called a religious education frequently does more hurt than good; and that many of the persons who were so educated are sinners above other men, and have contracted an enmity to religion which usually continues all their lives. And this will naturally be the case, if either the religion wherein they are instructed or the manner of instructing then be wrong. How few there are of those that undertake the education of children who understand the nature of religion, who know what true religion us!
Thoughts on Education

I love the poor: in many of them I find pure genuine grace, unmixed with paint, folly, and affectation.
Letter, 25th September, 1757

2007-06-10T05:27:00.000-04:00

JUNE 11

I have often thought of saying of Dr. Hayward’s when he examined me for priest’s orders: “Do you know what you are about? You are bidding defiance to all mankind. He that would live a Christian priest ought to know that, whether his hand be against every man or no, he must expect every man’s hand should be against him.” It is not strange that every man’s hand who is not a Christian should be against him that endeavours to be so. But is it not hard that even those that are with us should be against us? That a man’s enemies (in some degree) should be those of the same household of faith? Yet so it is. From a time that a man sets himself to his business, very many, even of those who travel the same road, many of those who are before as well as behind him, will lay stumbling-blocks in his way.
to Samuel Wesley, June, 1731

The way to heaven is singularity all over. If you move but one step towards God, you are not as other men are.
Sermon XXVI., §4

2007-05-30T14:34:00.000-04:00

JUNE 10

Do as much today as you can do without hurting yourself, or disabling you from doing the same tomorrow.
Works, iv.232 (1771 edition)

It is a bad dog that is not worth whistling for.
to Charles Wesley, 1786

A little well-placed raillery will often pierce deeper than solid argument.
The Duty of Reproving Our Neighbour

Is there any fool or madman under heaven who can be compared to him that casts away his own soul, though it were to gain the whole world?
The Important Question

Let the frog swell as long as he can, he will not equal the ox.
to John Downes, 1759

2007-05-30T14:33:00.001-04:00

JUNE 9

You are no more at liberty to throw away your health than to throw away your life.
Letter, 13th July, 1774

God does not expect us to be sticks or stones. We may grieve and yet not murmur.
to his niece, Sarah Wesley, 1788

You have your hands full of business; but it will not hurt you while your heart is free.
to Ann Bolton, 1783

True religion has nothing sour, austere, unsociable, unfriendly in it.
to Mrs, Chapman, 1737

2007-05-30T14:32:00.001-04:00

JUNE 8

It is mere groundless imagination that I love persons less for their plain dealing.
Letter, 1st November, 1779

Peter Jaco would willingly travel. But how? Can you help us to a horse that would carry him and his wife? What a pity we could not procure a camel or elephant!
to Christopher Hopper, 1773

I must be on horseback for life, if I would be healthy. Now and then indeed, if I could afford it, I should rest myself for fifty miles in a chaise; but without riding near as much as I do now, I must never look for health.
to Ebenezer Blackwell, 1764

2007-05-30T14:31:00.001-04:00

JUNE 7

There is a reward for bearing as well as doing His will.
Letter, 2nd March, 1773

It was from an ancient sect of physicians, whom we were supposed to resemble in our regular diet and exercise, that we were originally styled Methodists. … We were High Churchmen in the strongest sense. But we acknowledge as brethren all Dissenters, whether they are Methodist or not.
to Dr. Free, 1758

I positively forbid you or any preacher to be a leader; rather put the most insignificant person in each class to be the leader of it.
to John Cricket, 1783

It is right to add as much solemnity as we can to the admission of new members.
to John Valton, 1783

2007-05-30T14:29:00.000-04:00

JUNE 6

Labour to be serious, earnest, edifying in your daily conversations.
Letter, 10th August, 1779

The Methodists in general, my Lord, are members of the Church of England. They hold all her doctrines, attend her Service, and partake of her Sacraments. … For what reasonable end would your Lordship drive these people out of the Church? Are they not as quiet, as inoffensive, nay, as pious, as any of their neighbours, except perhaps here and there a hair-brained man who knows not what he is about? … Is it a Christian, yea, a Protestant Bishop, that so persecutes his own flock?
to Dr. Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln, 1790

2007-05-30T14:28:00.000-04:00

JUNE 5

Stir yourself up before the Lord! Pray that you may be all alive.
Letter, 10th August, 1779

1. I always use a short, private prayer when I attend the service of God …
2. I stand whenever I sing the praise of God in public. …
3. I always kneel before the Lord my Maker when I pray in public.
4. I generally in public use the Lord’s Prayer, because Christ has taught me, when I pray, to say: Our Father.

I advise every preacher connected with me, herein to tread in my steps.
Journal, 5th June, 1766

2007-05-30T14:26:00.000-04:00

JUNE 4

Walk in the narrowest path of the narrow way, and the Spirit of Glory and of Christ shall rest upon you.
Letter, 12th August, 1774

Loyalty is with me an essential branch of religion, and which I am sorry any Methodist should forget. There is the closest connexion [sic], therefore, between my religious and my political conduct. The selfsame authority enjoining me to fear God and to honour the King.
to Elizabeth Ritchie, 1779

The supposition that the people are the origin of power is every way indefensible.
Thoughts Concerning the Origin of Power

You will never see yourself aright, till He light His candle in your breast.
Works, IX: 464

2007-05-30T14:25:00.001-04:00

JUNE 3

You believe there is such a thing as light, whether flowing from the sun or any other luminous body. But you cannot comprehend either its nature or the manner wherein it flows. How does it move from Jupiter to the earth in eight minutes, two hundred thousand miles in a moment? How do the rays of the candle brought into the room instantly disperse into every corner? Here are three candles, yet there is but one light. Explain this, and I will explain the Three-One God.

The knowledge of the Three-One God is interwoven with all true Christian faith, with all vital religion.
The Trinity

I care not for labour, but I want time.
Letter, 23rd October, 1779

2007-05-30T14:23:00.000-04:00

JUNE 2

I dare not insist on anyone’s using the word Trinity or Person. I use them myself without any scruple because I know of none better. But if any man has any scruple concerning them, who shall constrain him to use them? I cannot; much less would I burn a man alive, and that with moist green wood, for saying: “Though I believe the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, yet I scruple using the words Trinity and Person because I do not find those terms in the Bible.” … I would insist only on the direct words unexplained, just as they lie in the text: “There are Three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these Three are One.”
The Trinity

And if you use the whole power which is then given, He will not only continue that power, but increase it day by day.
Letter, 3rd June, 1774

2007-05-30T14:22:00.000-04:00

JUNE 1

Of all preaching, what is usually called Gospel preaching is the most useless, if not the most mischievous; a dull, yea or lively, harangue on the sufferings of Christ or salvation by faith without strongly inculcating holiness. I see more and more that this naturally tends to drive holiness out of the world.
to Charles Wesley, 1772

Do not lightly take the Name of God in your mouth; do not talk of the will of God on every trifling occasion.
The Nature of Enthusiasm

When we are justified, He gives us one talent; to those who use this He gives more. When we are sanctified, He gives us as it were five talents.
Letter, 3rd June, 1779

2007-05-25T14:43:00.000-04:00

MAY 31

The Lord reigneth and disposes all things, strongly and sweetly, for the good of them that love Him.
Letter, 11th February, 1779

Who was the occasion of the Methodist preachers first setting foot in Leeds? William Shent.

Who was it that invited me and received me when I came? William Shent.

Who was it that stood by me while I preached in the street with stones flying on every side? William Shent.

Who was it that bore the storm of persecution for the whole town and stemmed it at the peril of his life? William Shent.

Whose word did God bless for many years in an eminent manner? William Shent’s.

Who is he that is ready to be broken up and turned into the street? William Shent.

And does nobody care for this? William Shent fell into sin and was publicly expelled the Society; but must he also be starved? … Where is gratitude? Where is compassion? Where is Christianity? Where is humanity? … Let us set him on his feet once more.
to the Society at Keighley, 1779

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MAY 30

What was their fundamental doctrine? That the Bible is the whole and sole rule both of Christian faith and practice. Hence they learned, I. That religion is an inward principle; that it is none other than the mind that was in Christ; or, in other words, the renewal of the soul after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness; 2. That this can never be wrought in us, but by the power of the Holy Ghost, 3. That we receive this and every other blessing, merely for the sake of Christ; and, 4. That whosoever hath the mind that was in Christ, the same is our brother and sister and mother.
Thoughts Upon Methodism

Chance has no share in the government of the world.
Letter, 11th February, 1779

2007-05-25T14:40:00.000-04:00

MAY 29

In November, a large building, the Foundery [sic], being offered him, he began preaching therein, morning and evening; at five in the morning, and seven in the evening, that the people’s labour might not be hindered. From the beginning, the men and women sat apart, as they always did in the Primitive Church. And none were suffered to call any place their own, but the first comers sat down first. They had no pews; and all the benches for rich and poor, were of the same construction. Mr. Wesley began the service with a short prayer; then sung a hymn and preached (usually about half an hour), then sang a few verses of another hymn, and concluded with prayer. His constant doctrine was salvation by faith, preceded by repentance, and followed by holiness.
Thoughts Upon Methodism

If you have two or three that are strong in faith, they will wrestle with God in mighty prayer, and bring down a blessing on all that are round about them.
Letter, 11th February, 1779

2007-05-25T14:38:00.000-04:00

MAY 28

Still I insist, the fact (of the Trinity) you believe, you cannot deny; but the manner you cannot comprehend.
Sermon, LV, 7

In the year 1729 four young students in Oxford agreed to spend their evenings together. They were all zealous members of the Church of England, and had no peculiar opinions, but were distinguished only by their constant attendance on the Church and Sacrament. In 1735 they were increased to fifteen, when the chief of them embarked for America, intending to preach to the heathen Indians. Methodism then seemed to die away; but it revived again in the year 1738, especially after Mr. Wesley (not being allowed to preach in the Churches) began to preach in the fields.
Thoughts Upon Methodism

2007-05-23T11:25:00.001-04:00

MAY 27

The knowledge of the Three-One-God is interwoven with all true Christian faith; with all vital religion.
Sermon, LV, 7

Give me leave, my Lord, to say you have mistook and misrepresented this whole affair from the top to the bottom. And I am the more concerned to take notice of this because so many have fallen into the same mistake. It is indeed, and has been from the beginning, the capital blunder of our bitterest adversaries. … It is not our care, endeavour or desire to proselyte any from one man to another; or from one Church, from one congregation or Society, to another, – we would not move a finger to do this, to make ten thousand such proselytes, – but from darkness to light, from Belial to Christ, from the power of Satan to God. Our one aim is to proselyte sinners to repentance.
to Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, 1747

2007-05-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

MAY 26

Yet the enemy injected a fear: “If thou dost believe, why is there not a more sensible change?” I answered (yet not I): “That I know not. But this I know: I now have peace with God. And I sin not to-day, and Jesus has forbid me to take thought for the morrow.”

“But is not any sort of fear,” continued the tempter, “a proof that thou dost not believe?” I desired my Master to answer for me, and opened His Book upon those words of St. Paul: “Without were fightings, within were fears.” Then, inferred I, well may fears be within me; but I must go on and tread them under my feet.
Journal, 25th May, 1738

Beware of lukewarmness. Beware of cleaving to the present world. Let your treasure and your heart be above.
Letter, 27th November, 1783

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MAY 25

The moment I awakened, “Jesus, Master,” was in my heart, and in my mouth; and I found all my strength lay in keeping my eye fixed on Him, and my soul waiting on Him continually. Being again at St. Paul’s in the afternoon, I could taste the good word of God in the anthem: “My song shall be always of the lovingkindness of the Lord; with my mouth will I ever be showing forth Thy truth from one generation to another.”

. . . . . . . . . .

All these days I scarce remember to have opened the Testament but upon some great and precious promise. And I saw more than ever, that the Gospel is in truth but one great promise from the beginning of it to the end.
Journal, 25th May, 1738

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MAY 24

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. 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.

I began to pray with all my might. … I then testified openly. … Then was I taught that peace and victory over sin are essential to faith in the Captain of our salvation.
Journal, 24th May, 1738

2007-05-22T10:18:00.001-04:00

MAY 23

In this refined way of trusting to my own works and my own righteousness, I dragged on heavily, finding no comfort or help therein, till the time of my leaving England. On shipboard, however, I was again active in outward works; where it pleased God of His free mercy to give me twenty-six of the Moravian brethren for companions, who endeavoured to show me a more excellent way. But I understood it not at first. I was too learned and too wise. So that it seemed foolishness to me. And I continued preaching, and following after, and trusting in, that righteousness whereby no flesh can be justified.

All the time I was at Savannah I was thus beating the air. … I sought to establish my own righteousness; and so laboured in the fire all my days.
Journal, 24th May, 1738

Cleave to Him with your whole heart, and you will have more and more reason to praise Him.
Letter, 13th November, 1778

2007-05-22T10:17:00.001-04:00

MAY 22

Look up, and wait for happy days!
Letter, 26th October, 1778

When I was about twenty-two, my father pressed me to enter into holy orders. … I began to alter the whole form of my conversation, and to set in earnest upon a new life. I set apart an hour or two a day for religious retirement. I communicated every week, I watched against all sin, whether in word or deed. I began to aim at, and pray for, inward holiness. So that now, doing so much, and living so good a life, I doubted not but I was a good Christian. …

I began to see more and more the value of time. I applied myself closer to study … I advised others to be religious. … The light flowed in so mightily upon my soul, that everything appeared in a new view.
Journal, 24th May, 1738

2007-05-15T11:19:00.000-04:00

MAY 21

Whenever the Holy Ghost teaches, there is no delay in learning.
Works, VII, 32.

You know it is very natural for me to estimate wisdom and goodness by years, and to suppose the longest experience must be the best. But although there is much advantage in long experience, and we may trust an old soldier more than a novice; yet God is tied down to no rules; he frequently works a great work in a little time, He makes young men and women wiser than the aged, and gives to many in a very short time, a closer and deeper communion with Himself than others attain in a long course of years.
to Miss March, 1774

2007-05-15T11:17:00.000-04:00

MAY 20

I received the surprising news that my brother had found rest to his soul. His bodily strength also returned from that hour. “Who is so great a God as our God?”
Journal, 19th May, 1738

I was much concerned yesterday when I heard you were likely to marry a woman against the consent of your parents. I have never in an observation of fifty years known such a marriage attended with a blessing. I know not how it should be, since it is flatly contrary to the fifth commandment. I told my own mother, when pressing me to marry: “I dare not allow you a positive voice herein; I dare not marry a person because you bid me. But I must allow you a negative voice: I will marry no person if you forbid. I know it would be a great sin against God.”
to Elijah Bush, 1781

2007-05-15T11:16:00.002-04:00

MAY 19

Loyalty in with me an essential branch of religion.
Letter, 25th June, 1777

I take knowledge, you are a young man; and as such, extremely peremptory. So was I, till I was more than thirty years old. So I may well make allowance for you. I was likewise as much bigoted to my own opinions as you can be for your life; that is, I thought them deeply important, and that all contrary opinions were damnable errors. Have patience and you will see farther. In a few years you will find out that neither these are half so necessary to salvation, nor those half so destructive as you now imagine.

. . . . . . .

Jealousy and suspiciousness I despise and abhor, as I do hell-fire. And I believe nothing, great or small, without such kind of proof and the nature of the thing allows.
to Samuel Furly, 1762

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MAY 18

Work your work betimes; and in His time He will give you a full reward.
Letter, 1st November, 1778

There is no other religious Society under heaven which requires nothing of men in order to their admission into it, but a desire to save their souls. Look all around you, you cannot be admitted into the Church or Society of the Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, or any others, unless you hold the same opinions with them, and adhere to the same mode of worship. The Methodists alone do not insist on your holding this or that opinion, but they think and let think. Neither do they impose any particular mode of worship, but you may continue to worship in your former manner, be it what it may.
Journal, 18th May, 1788

2007-05-15T11:11:00.000-04:00

MAY 17

The more labour, the more blessing.
Letter, 9th October 1779

Woman, remember the faith! In the name of God, set out again, and do the first works … Begin again without delay. The day after you receive this, go and meet a class or a band. Sick or well, go! If you cannot speak a word, go; and God will go with you. You sink under the sin of omission.
to Ann Bolton, 1790

I have been often musing upon this: Why the generality of Christians, even those that really are such, are less zealous and less active for God, when they are middle-aged than they were when they were young.
to Elizabeth Ritchie, 1784

Fight on and conquer!
to Dorothy Furley, 1757

2007-05-10T15:27:00.000-04:00

MAY 16

Thou poor sinner, stay not to be any better, but take Him just as you are! Trust Him, praise Him now, the Lord will take you with His sweet force.
Letter, 29th November, 1774

Of all the seats of woe on this side (of) hell few, I suppose, exceed or equal Newgate. If any region of horror could exceed it a few years ago, Newgate in Bristol did; so great was the filth the stench, the misery and wickedness which shocked all who had a spark of humanity left. How was I surprised, then, when Iwas there a few weeks ago! Every part of it, above stairs and below, even the pit wherein the felons are confined at night, is as clean and sweet as a gentlemen’s house. … The prison now has a new face; nothing offends either the eye or ear; and the whole has the appearance of a quiet, serious family. And does not the Keeper of Newgate deserve to be remembered full as well as the Man of Ross?
to the London Chronicle, 1761

2007-05-10T15:26:00.000-04:00

MAY 15

Exhort all the believers, strongly and explicitly, to go on to perfection; and to expect every blessing God has promised, not tomorrow, but today!
Letter, 7th March, 1779

My mother never would suffer one of her children to go to a dancing-school. But she had a dancing-master to come to her house who taught all of us what was sufficient in her presence. To this I have no objection. If I had convenience, I would be glad to have all our preachers taught, even by a dancing-master, to make a bow and to go in and out of a room.
to James Barry, 1773

Of playing at cards, I say the same as of seeing plays, I could not do it with a clear conscience. But I am not obliged to pass any sentence on those that are otherwise minded.
The More Excellent Way

2007-05-10T15:25:00.000-04:00

MAY 14

Find preachers of David Brainerds spirit, and nothing can stand before them.
Journal, 8th August, 1767

I am a Church-of-England man; and, as I said fifty years ago so I say still, in the Church I will live and die, unless I am thrust out.

. . . . . . .

Our glorying has been not to be a separate body.
to Henry Moore, 1788

I have one point in view to promote, so far as I am able, vital practical religion; and by the grace of God to beget, preserve and increase the life of God in the souls of men.
to Samuel Walker, 1756

2007-05-10T15:24:00.000-04:00

MAY 13

Expect from Him, not what you deserve, but what you want – health of soul and health of body.
Letter, 16th August, 1778

The nation is already involved in many troubles. And we know not how many more may follow. Are we able to extricate ourselves out of them all? If we have so much wisdom and strength that we need no help from man, are we quite sure that we need no help from God? I know your Lordship is not of that opinion. But if we need it, why are we ashamed to ask for it? To ask for it in the manner our forefathers did, in solemn public fasting and prayer? …

My Lord, my heart is full. Suffer me to speak; and if I speak as a fool, yet as a fool bear with me. Has your Lordship been ashamed (if every one else was) to mention this to His Majesty? Who besides your Lordship is likely to do it? Did prudence hinder you from doing it? … Now your Lordship has need of the whole armour of God … that you may answer the design of Him who hath raised you up for this very thing, and placed you so near His Majesty that he might have one counselor at least who dares not flatter but will speak the truth from his heart.
Letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, 1775

2007-05-10T15:23:00.000-04:00

MAY 12

You are all, I hope, pressing on to the mark! See! the prize is before you!
Letter, 19th February, 1779

It was in pursuance of an advice given by Bishop Taylor, in his Rules for Holy Living and Dying, that about fifteen years ago I began to take a more exact account than I had done before, of the matter wherein I spent my time, writing down how I had employed every hour. This I continued to do, wherever I was, till the time of my leaving England. The variety of scenes which I then passed through induced me to transcribe, from time to time, the more material parts of my diary, adding here and there such little reflections as occurred to my mind.
Preface to Journal, 1732

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MAY 11

I have often repented of judging too severely, but very seldom of being too merciful.
Letter, 20th October, 1787

I am shortly to take my Master’s degree. As I shall from that time be less interrupted by business not of my own choosing, I have drawn up for myself a scheme of studies, from which I do not intend, for some years at least, to vary. I am perfectly come over to your opinion that there may be truths it is not worth while to know. Curiosity, indeed, might be a sufficient plea for our laying out some time upon them, if we had half a dozen centuries of life to come; but, methinks it is great ill-husbandry to spend a considerable part of the small pittance now allowed us in what makes us neither a quick nor a sure return.
Letter to his mother, 1727

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MAY 10

All the blessings which God hath bestowed upon man are of His mere grace, bounty or favour; His free, undeserved favour; favour altogether undeserved; man having no claim to the least of His mercies. It was free grace that formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into him a living soul and stamped on that soul the image of God, and put all things under his feet. The same free grace continues to us, at this day, life and breath and all things, for there is nothing we are or have or do which can deserve the least thing at God’s hand.
Salvation by Faith

Read the most useful books, and that regularly and constantly.
Large Minutes, 1770, Q.32