Ruin protected by Walls of Immense Thickness

Wednesday, 12.--I preached to a large congregation at five, who seemed quite athirst for instruction. Afterward we took a walk over the remains of the castle, so bravely defended in the last century, against all the power of the Parliament forces, by the widow of the Lord Chief Justice Banks. It is one of the noblest ruins I ever saw: the walls are of an immense thickness, defying even the assaults of time, and were formerly surrounded by a deep ditch. The house, which stands in the middle on the very top of the rock, has been a magnificent structure. Sometime since the proprietor fitted up some rooms on the southwest side of this and laid out a little garden, commanding a large prospect, pleasant beyond description. For a while he was greatly delighted with it: but the eye was not satisfied with seeing. It grew familiar; it pleased no more and is now run all to ruin. No wonder: what can delight always but the knowledge and love of God?

The Journal of John Wesley 

We can still find him in the Meadow

Monday, October 10.--I preached at Salisbury; and on Tuesday, 11, set out for the Isle of Purbeck. When we came to Corfe Castle, the evening being quite calm and mild, I preached in a meadow near the town to a deeply attentive congregation, gathered from all parts of the island.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Berkeley Castle Admired

Saturday, 6.--I walked from Newport to Berkeley Castle. It is a beautiful, though very ancient, building; and every part of it kept in good repair, except the lumber room and the chapel; the latter of which, having been of no use for many years, is now dirty enough. I particularly admired the fine situation and the garden on the top of the house. In one corner of the castle is the room where poor Richard II was murdered. His effigy is still preserved, said to be taken before his death. If he was like this, he had an open, manly countenance, though with a cast of melancholy. In the afternoon we went on to Bristol.

The Journal of John Wesley 

An Experienced Field Preacher Working

Thursday, 4.--l crossed over to Tewkesbury and preached at noon in a meadow near the town, under a tall oak. I went thence to Cheltenham. As it was the high season for drinking the waters, the town was full of gentry: so I preached near the market place in the evening, to the largest congregation that was ever seen there. Some of the footmen at first made a little disturbance; but I turned to them, and they stood reproved.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Correction and Grace

How impossible it is for [us] to see things right when [we] are 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 think [they] are corrected, not because [they] have done a fault, but because the parent is angry.

The Rev. John Wesley, A.M., tract on "The Duties of Husbands and Wives"

Faith and Fear

I know not that you have anything to do with fear. Your continual prayer should be for faith and love. I admired 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.

   Letter to Mary Bishop, 1770

You fear where no fear is.

   Letter to Zechariah Yewdall, 1782

Do right and fear nothing.

   Letter to William Holmes, 1788

Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.

Sometimes a day is summarized in a single sentence.

Tuesday, August 2.--I preached at ten in the town hall at Evesham and rode on to Broadmarston.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Twenty-four yards and Unhurt

Sunday, 31.--The church could not contain the congregations either morning or afternoon; but in the evening I preached to a still larger congregation at Broseley, equally attentive. I now learned the particulars of a remarkable story, which I had heard imperfectly before: Sometime since, one of the colliers here, coming home at night, dropped into a coalpit twenty-four yards deep. He called aloud for help, but none heard all that night and all the following day. The second night, being weak and faint, he fell asleep and dreamed that his wife, who had been sometime dead, came to him and greatly comforted him. In the morning, a gentleman going a-hunting, a hare started up just before the hounds, ran straight to the mouth of the pit, and was gone; no man could tell how. The hunters searched all around the pit till they heard a voice from the bottom. They quickly procured proper help and drew up the man unhurt. 

The Journal of John Wesley

Sycamore Tree Blessings

Saturday, July 30.--I went to Madeley and in the evening preached under a sycamore tree, in Madeley Wood, to a large congregation, a good part of them colliers, who drank in every word. Surely never were places more alike than Madeley Wood, Gateshead Fell, and Kingswood.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Persistence of Grace and Strength

Tuesday, 28.--This being my birthday, the first day of my seventy-second year, I was considering how is it that I find just the same strength as I did thirty years ago? That my sight is considerably better now and my nerves firmer than they were then? That I have none of the infirmities of old age and have lost several I had in my youth? The grand cause is the good pleasure of God who doeth whatsoever pleaseth Him. The chief means are: 1) my constantly rising at four, for about fifty years; 2) my generally preaching at five in the morning, one of the most healthy exercises in the world; 3) my never traveling less, by sea or land, than four thousand five hundred miles in a year.

The Journal of John Wesley 

The all-absorbing focus

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.

The Rev. John Wesley, A.M., letter to his brother Samuel, 1726

Postscript to life.

I am persuaded both evil and good angels had a large share in this transaction: how large we do not know now, but we shall know hereafter.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Stop fighting one another and conquer evil.

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!

The Rev. John Wesley, A.M., letter to the Rev. J. Venn, 1763

The only opinion worth having other than Jesus is Lord

I impose my opinions upon none.... I make no opinion the term of union with any [person]; I think and let think. What I want is holiness of heart and life.

The Rev. John Wesley, A.M., letter to the Rev J. Venn, 1763

Nothing will hurt you; do not be afraid.

I thought, "However, the gate which is on the other side of the yard and is shut, will stop them": but they rushed through it as if it had been a cobweb and galloped on through the cornfield. The little girls cried out, "Grandpapa, save us!" I told them, "Nothing will hurt you; do not be afraid"; feeling no more fear or care (blessed be God!) than if I had been sitting in my study. The horses ran on till they came to the edge of a steep precipice. Just then Mr. Smith, who could not overtake us before, galloped in between. They stopped in a moment. Had they gone on ever so little, he and we must have gone down together!

The Journal of John Wesley 

Unintended Acceleration (18th Century Problem)

Monday, 20.--About nine I set out from Sunderland for Horsley, with Mr. Hopper and Mr. Smith. I took Mrs. Smith and her two little girls in the chaise with me. About two miles from the town, just on the brow of the hill, on a sudden both the horses set out, without any visible cause, and flew down the hill like an arrow out of a bow. In a minute John fell off the coachbox. The horses then went on full speed, sometimes to the edge of the ditch on the right, sometimes on the left. A cart came up against them: they avoided it as exactly as if the man had been on the box. A narrow bridge was at the foot of the hill. They went directly over the middle of it. They ran up the next hill with the same speed, many persons meeting us, but getting out of the way. Near the top of the hill was a gate which led into a farmer's yard. It stood open. They turned short and ran through it, without touching the gate on one side or the post on the other.

The Journal of John Wesley 

God grant us small houses

Sunday, 5.--About eight I preached at Ormiston, twelve miles from Edinburgh. The house being small, I stood in the street and proclaimed "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." The congregation behaved with the utmost decency. So did that on the Castle Hill in Edinburgh at noon; though I strongly insisted, that God “now commandeth all men everywhere to repent" [Acts 17:30]. In the evening the house was thoroughly filled, and many seemed deeply affected. I do not wonder that Satan, had it been in his power, would have had me otherwise employed this day.

The Journal of John Wesley

And we think fines are high today! A fortune!

Mr. Sutherland furiously insisted that the officer should carry us to the Tolbooth without delay. However, he waited till two or three of our friends came and gave a bond for our appearance on the twenty-fourth instant. Mr. S. did appear, the cause was heard, and the prosecutor fined one thousand pounds.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Do you know what you are about?

I have often thought of a 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 [people]. He that would live a Christian priest ought to know that, whether his hand should 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 to endeavors 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 the 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.

Letter of The Rev. John Wesley, A.M., to his father Rev. Samuel Wesley
June, 1731

Blunder! Confusion! Inconvenience!

But why does he incarcerate John Wesley? Nothing is laid against him, less or more. Hugh Saunderson preaches in connection with him. What then? Was not the Sheriff strangely overseen?

The Journal of John Wesley 

Greater Blows

Before the Sheriff, Archibald Cockburn, Esq., he had deposed, "That the said John Wesley and Hugh Saunderson, to evade her pursuit, were preparing to fly the country; and therefore he desired his warrant to search for, seize, and incarcerate them in the Tolbooth, till they should find security for their appearance." To this request the Sheriff had assented and given his warrant for that purpose.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Entanglement and Misrepresentation

Saturday, 4.--l found uncommon liberty at Edinburgh in applying Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones. As I was walking home, two men followed me, one of whom said, "Sir, you are my prisoner. I have a warrant from the Sheriff to carry you to the Tolbooth." At first I thought he jested; but finding the thing was serious, I desired one or two of our friends to go up with me. When we were safe lodged in a house adjoining to the Tolbooth, I desired the officer to let me see his warrant. I found the prosecutor was one George Sutherland, once a member of the society. He had deposed, "That Hugh Saunderson, one of John Wesley's preachers, had taken from his wife one hundred pounds in money and upwards of thirty pounds in goods; and had, besides that, terrified her into madness; so that, through the want of her help and the loss of business, he was damaged five hundred pounds."

The Journal of John Wesley 

The Now of God's Spirit

Begin now and end never.

The Rev. John Wesley, A.M.

Gratification and Joy

Wednesday, June 1.--I went to Edinburgh, and the next day examined the society one by one. I was agreeably surprised. They have fairly profited since I was here last. Such a number of persons having sound Christian experience I never found in this society before. I preached in the evening to a very elegant congregation, and yet with great enlargement of heart.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Oh yes he did!

Friday, May 20.--I rode over to Mr. Fraser's, at Monedie, whose mother-in-law was to be buried that day. Oh, what a difference is there between the English and the Scotch method of burial! The English does honor to human nature, and even to the poor remains that were once a temple of the Holy Ghost! But when I see in Scotland a coffin put into the earth and covered up without a word spoken, it reminds me of what was spoken concerning Jehoiakim, "He shall be buried with the burial of an ass!"

The Journal of John Wesley 

Voyage of Prayer Instructions

1. I always use a short, private prayer when I attend the public 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.

The Journal of John Wesley, June 5, 1766

A Prelude to Bronze

1774. Monday, January 24.--I was desired by Mrs. Wright, of New York, to let her take my effigy in waxwork. She has that of Mr. Whitefield and many others; but none of them, I think, comes up to a well-drawn picture.

The Journal of John Wesley 

A Natural Wonder

Monday, 11, and the following days, I took a little tour through Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. Between Northampton and Towcester we met with a great natural curiosity, the largest elm I ever saw; it was twenty-eight feet in circumference, six feet more than that which was some years ago in Magdalen College walks at Oxford. 

The Journal of John Wesley

An Unexpected Audit

Monday, October 4.--I went, by Shepton Mallet, to Shaftesbury, and on Tuesday to Salisbury. Wednesday, 6. Taking chaise at two in the morning, in the evening I came well to London. The rest of the week I made what inquiry I could into the state of my accounts. Some confusion had arisen from the sudden death of my bookkeeper; but it was less than might have been expected.

The Journal of John Wesley 

Receiving Liberty in the Body

Sunday, 19.--I thought myself able to speak to the congregation, which I did for half an hour; but afterwards I found a pain in my left side and in my shoulder by turns, exactly as I did at Canterbury twenty years before. In the morning I could scarcely lift my hand to my head; but after being electrified I was much better, so that I preached with tolerable ease in the evening; and the next evening read the letters, though my voice was weak. From this time I slowly recovered my voice and my strength, and on Sunday preached without any trouble. 

The Journal of John Wesley