In the spring of 1741, George Whitefield came back from America, and John Wesley went to talk to him. Whitefield spoke very plainly to him, and told him he could no longer join him in preaching, and that he should feel it right to warn those to whom he preached against the two errors I have told you about.
It is very sad when Satan thus divides God’s people by bringing in errors and misunderstandings of God’s truth; but in such cases it is wrong to “agree to differ,” as people often say. Those who are speaking according to God’s mind are right in showing the errors of those who differ from it, however painful it may be to do so. Peter Böhler came to England about the same time, and Wesley had a long talk with him, which, he said, “made his heart burn within him;” but still Peter could not convince him that he was wrong. John’s old American friend, Mr. Spangenberg, was also in London, and they both talked to John Wesley a great deal about “perfection.” Mr. Spangenberg said, “The moment we are justified a new creature is put into us. This is otherwise called the new man. But notwithstanding, the old creature, or the old man, remains in us till the day of our death. And in this old man there remains an old heart, corrupt and abominable. But the heart which is in the new man is clean, and the new man is stronger than the old, so that, though corruption continually strives, yet while we look to Christ it cannot prevail. You fancy your corruptions are taken away, but inward corruption never can be taken away till our bodies are in the dust.” To this Wesley answered, “Was there inward corruption in our Lord? Cannot the servant be as his master?” We see from this answer how great was Wesley’s error. We know there was no inward corruption in the Lord; but it was in this that He was perfectly different from any other man. And if we look at the passage where it is said “the servant shall be as his master,” we find it refers to the way in which the ungodly world will treat the servant. “If they persecute Me,” He says, “they will also persecute you.” In Luke 6:4040The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. (Luke 6:40), where it is said “every one that is perfect shall be as his master,” we find in the margin it should be read, “every one shall be perfected as his master.” Just as in the verse before we are told that the blind who follow the blind will be led into the ditch, so they who follow Christ will be led in His steps, and they will at last in glory be perfectly conformed to His image. But that is when the sinful nature is entirely gone and even our bodies are made like His.
However, John Wesley never saw that he was wrong. Only God can convince the heart. Let us be careful to look to Him to be taught, and to be kept from error in belief or practice. In the autumn Count Zinzendorff came to London, and Wesley had a long talk with him in Gray’s Inn walks. This conversation was in Latin. They seem to have separated without agreeing on any of these points more than before.
During this year, and the beginning of the following, Wesley made constant journeys as before between London and Bristol, and once went north as far as Nottingham. He was sometimes ill-treated, but almost always found crowds ready to hear the gospel. The change which had taken place amongst the colliers of Kingswood was indeed wonderful to behold.
I must for a moment go back to the beginning of this year 1741, to tell you of the last great sorrow which befell poor old Mrs. Wesley during her life of many troubles.
On the 9th of March, Kezzy died at the house of a friend in Surrey. She had always been in delicate health, and till about two years before her death she had opposed the gospel, which her brothers, Charles especially, told her “plainly and fully,” as he says. At last Charles had said, “Will you then discharge me in the sight of God from speaking to you again? If you will, I promise never more to open my mouth till we meet in eternity.” Kezzy fell on Charles’s neck with many tears, and was now ready to listen. She believed, and after the short time still left her here below, she died “full,” as we are told, “of thankfulness and love, commending her spirit into the hands of Jesus.” I will now only mention a few of the events which we find in Wesley’s journal from time to time, as to tell you all would fill many large books.
Once, near Bristol, the mob brought a bull they had been baiting, and drove him into the crowd when Wesley was preaching on the village green. They hoped the bull would upset the table on which the preacher stood. But though the bull stood close to the table he was quite quiet, which so provoked the mob that they seized the table themselves and broke it in pieces, whilst some of Wesley’s friends rushed to the rescue, and carried him off on their shoulders. In May, 1742, Wesley set off on a journey further north than he had yet been as a preacher of the gospel. He first went to Donnington Park in Leicestershire, where Lady Huntingdon lived. Then he went on into Yorkshire, and at the end of May reached Birstal, our old friend John Nelson’s home. As soon as he got there he sent for John to come and see him at the inn, for John had written to him a little while before telling him of the troubles and trials which had befallen him, and it was a great comfort to the poor man to see Mr. Wesley and have his advice. John had also good news to tell, how his two brothers and his old mother had believed in Jesus, and his mother had died rejoicing. Then his aunt and two cousins had believed, and numbers of his neighbors. He had at first talked to them, and read with them, and when he found many willing to listen he had begun to preach out-of-doors, and the Lord had blessed his labors, so that many souls had been saved. A little while before, John Wesley would have been shocked to hear of a stonemason preaching the gospel, or, in fact, anybody who was not a clergyman. (That such things should be done in other countries he does not appear to have thought wrong. As he had listened gladly to Christian David at Herrnhuth, he perhaps thought that where there was no Church of England it mattered little who preached.) When he had first heard of such a thing, in England, it was in the case of a young man called Thomas Maxfield. Not long before, when going from London to Bristol, he had once left Maxfield to look after the classes and meetings at the Foundry, telling him he might read the Bible to any anxious to be taught, and now and then make a remark, but he was on no account to preach. Maxfield found, however, so many longing to hear the gospel, that he dared not refuse to preach it to them. Wesley heard of it, and his mother saw him one day unexpectedly walk in, when she thought he was busy at Bristol. He looked very much disturbed, and very angry. “So Thomas Maxfield has turned preacher, I find,” he said. “John,” said his mother, “you know I used to think none but a clergyman ought to preach, but take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him yourself.” Wesley was wise enough to take his mother’s advice. He went to hear Maxfield, and was only thankful when he found he preached faithfully and well. “It is the Lord.” he said, “let Him do what seemeth Him good. What am I that I should withstand God?” God in His providence had ordered this to happen before Wesley and John Nelson met at Birstal, so that Wesley could now cheer and encourage poor John, who had already been told more than once that he had no business to preach without authority.
Wesley himself was cheered and encouraged by finding, that in consequence of John’s preaching, there were many believers in the town of Birstal, who met together for reading and prayer just as the other Methodist societies which Wesley had formed in other places. Wesley preached twice that day at Birstal to large crowds, and spoke to many besides. Next day he set off for Newcastle-upon-Tine. Newcastle was a surprise to John Wesley. He calls it “the Kingswood of the north.” Like Kingswood, it abounded with colliers, and the wickedness of the people was beyond anything he had ever seen. He says, “So much drunkenness, cursing and swearing (even from the mouths of little children) do I never remember to have seen and heard before. Surely this place is ripe for Him who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” The first morning Wesley walked down to the worst part of the town, at seven o’clock, and there, standing in the street, began to sing the 100th Psalm. Before long a crowd collected; there were at last about 1500. He preached on the text, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.” Blessed tidings to have to tell to these poor degraded people! But at first it seemed beyond their comprehension, for Wesley said: “When I had done, I observed them stand gaping and staring upon me with the most profound astonishment. I told them—if you desire to know who I am, my name is John Wesley. At five in the evening, with God’s help, I mean to preach here again.” At five o’clock, more than 20,000 people were standing ready to listen. Wesley had never seen so large a crowd, either in Moorfields or at Kennington. He preached on the text, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” It was sad to leave these poor people who seemed, he said, after the preaching, to be ready to tread him under foot out of pure love and kindness. But this was Sunday, and he had promised to be at Birstal again on Tuesday. After preaching at Birstal and the villages round, Wesley set off for his old home at Epworth, in Lincolnshire. He had not been there since his visit to his dying father. He wondered how he would be received now that he was a despised Methodist. On arriving at the inn, an old servant of his father’s, with two or three poor women, found him out. The old servant was rejoiced to see him, not only because she had loved the family, but for a stronger reason—because she, too, had found peace through believing in Jesus. Wesley called next morning (Sunday) on Mr. Romley, the curate, and offered to read prayers, or to preach in the church. But Mr. Romley was by no means anxious to have the help of a Methodist. On the contrary, as a crowd came to church in the afternoon, hoping to hear Mr. Wesley, Mr. Romley took the occasion to preach a sermon against enthusiasm, by which he meant, people being in earnest about the salvation of their souls. The text he chose was a strange one for such a subject—“Quench not the Spirit.” I suppose he did not know that was just what he was doing at that moment, to the best of his power. But man is not always allowed to succeed in his attempts to do so. As the people came out of church, a good man who had gone with John Wesley to Epworth, called John Taylor, stood in the churchyard, and called out, “Mr. Wesley, not being permitted to preach in the church, intends to preach here, at six o’clock.” “At six o’clock,” says Wesley, “such a congregation came as, I believe, Epworth never saw before. I stood upon my father’s tombstone, and preached upon ‘The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’”
At eight o’clock he preached again, and every evening that week, on his father’s tombstone. During the day, he visited the towns and villages round. One day he paid a visit to a neighboring magistrate, before whom a whole wagon-load of people had just been brought, because they went to the Methodist preachings. “But what is their crime?” asked the magistrate. No answer was given, for the people who brought them had forgotten to settle what they were to be accused of. After a deep silence, one man said, “Why, they pretend to be better than other people; besides which, they pray from morning to night.” “Have they done nothing besides?” asked the magistrate. “Yes, sir,” said an old man. “An’ ’t please your worship, they have converted my wife. Till she went among them, she had such a tongue! and now she’s as quiet as a lamb.”
“Carry them back,” said the magistrate, “and let them convert all the scolding wives in the town.” Next Sunday, Wesley preached his last sermon in Epworth churchyard. The people stayed for three hours to hear him. It was very hard to part with them, but souls were perishing elsewhere; and now that the seed had been sown, Wesley had to leave them for a while, and, after preaching many times on the road, returned to Bristol. There he stayed till the middle of July, when he was called back to London for a sad reason. Old Mrs. Wesley, who had been suffering much for years in one way and another, was now so much worse, that a message was sent to John to desire him to come to London at once. He accordingly started from Bristol on Sunday evening, July 18. On Tuesday he writes, “I came to London, and found my mother on the borders of eternity. But she had no doubt or fear, nor any desire, but (as soon as God should call) to depart and to be with Christ.” All her five daughters were with her—Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Ellison, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Lambert, and Mrs. Hall; or, to call them by their old Epworth names, Emilia, Sukey, Hetty, Nancy, and Patty. Since you last heard of Emilia she had, at the age of fifty, married Mr. Harper, an apothecary at Epworth. Charles was not in London, and we have a short account of Mrs. Wesley’s last days in a letter which he received after her death from Nancy. She relates—“A few days before my mother died she desired me, if I had strength to bear it, that I would not leave her till death, which God enabled me to do. She labored under great trials, both of soul and body, some days after you left her, but God perfected His work in her above twelve hours before He took her to Himself. She waked out of a slumber, and we, hearing her rejoicing, attended to the words she spake, which were these: ‘My dear Saviour! are you come to help me at my extremity at last?’ From that time she was sweetly resigned indeed. The enemy had no more power to hurt her. The remainder of her time was spent in praise.”
It was on Tuesday, as I told you, that John had arrived. On Friday she seemed to be fast sinking. Her six children sat by her bedside, and sang to her for a time. “After this,” says John, “she continued perfectly sensible, though she could not speak, till nearly four o’clock. I was then going to drink a dish of tea, being faint and weary, when one called me again to the bedside. It was just four o’clock. She opened her eyes wide, and fixed them upward for a moment. Then the lids dropped, and the soul was set at liberty, without one struggle, or groan, or sigh. We stood around the bed and fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she lost her speech, ‘Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.’”
Mrs. Wesley was buried on the following Sunday week, late in the afternoon. Her grave is in the Bunhill Fields burying-ground, near where the Foundry once stood. One who was present at the funeral says, “At the grave there was much grief when Mr. Wesley said, I commit the body of my mother to the earth.” When the funeral service was over, John preached a sermon over the open grave. The text was, “I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it—” and so on to the end of the following verse, which speaks of the dead being judged out of those things that were written in the books according to their works. It was a strange text to choose for such an occasion, for we know that those verses in Revelation 20 describe, not the first resurrection, when Mrs. Wesley will rise again, but the second resurrection, which is not to happen till Christ has reigned on the earth 1000 years. In this last resurrection, called by the Lord in John 5 by the terrible name of the resurrection of damnation, the saints of God, instead of standing to be judged, will sit in judgment, in company with Christ, upon those then called out of their graves to receive the awful reward of their ungodly works. If you ask when will be the first resurrection, at which time God’s people will rise from their graves, I can tell you with joy and thankfulness that it may be tonight—tomorrow—any day—for it is for that glorious moment we are told to wait, expecting at any hour that the Lord may come. The first thing that He will do on coming down from heaven, will be to call the dead saints out of their graves, “then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” If it seems strange to us that John Wesley did not on such an occasion preach about the first resurrection in which his mother should rise again, we should remember that at that time even God’s believing people seem to have been in total ignorance of the blessed truth, that at any moment the Lord may come and call away His saints. They seem only to have expected Him to come for judgment, after many signs and prophecies should have been fulfilled. They did not understand that He would come and take away His saints before He would come with them to pour out His judgments on the ungodly, as is plainly taught us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17), where it is said that “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:” and that then the living saints shall be “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” And in 2 Thessalonians 1:77And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, (2 Thessalonians 1:7), we are told that the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven to take vengeance on the ungodly, and that then He shall be glorified in the saints, who, we read in Colossians 3, shall appear with Him in glory, and, as it is said in Zechariah, “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” It is then that those found alive on earth shall be judged by Christ and His saints, and 1000 years later we read of the judgment of those who have died, Christ and His saints sitting in judgment as before. But these things were overlooked even by God’s people 100 years ago. Neither Wesley, Whitefield, nor any of God’s servants in those days ever gave the blessed message, “The Lord Jesus may come today. We must be looking for Him.” It should not surprise us that so it was. The Lord Jesus foretold in the 25th chapter of Matthew that so it should be. He says, “While the bridegroom tarried, they all (foolish and wise virgins alike) slumbered and slept.” That is, as regards the truth of His coming at any moment, they were all alike asleep. Let us be thankful that we live at the time when the glorious midnight cry has been made, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him!”
John says, “We set up a plain stone at the head of her grave, and on this stone he wrote the following lines—
“In sure and steadfast hope to rise,
And claim her mansion in the skies;
A Christian here her flesh laid down—
The cross exchanging for a crown.
“True daughter of affliction, she,
Inured to pain and misery;
Mourned a long night of griefs and tears,
A legal night of seventy years.
“The Father then revealed His Son,
Him in the broken bread made known,
She knew and felt her sins forgiven,
And found the earnest of her heaven.”
There in the Bunhill Fields burying-ground we may leave Mrs. Wesley, till that day, we hope so soon to come, when she shall be raised in incorruption, and be forever with the Lord.