(i) The Practical Nature of the Revival
ENGLAND:
BEFORE
AND AFTER WESLEY
while as for rational speculation he was utterly sceptical that it alone could ever achieve such effect.
Had not " Rationalism' already had its chance, and were not its fruits sour ?
Had it not degenerated into cackling cleverness and sophisticated stupidity ? Was it not far removed from the sources, and hence devoid of the sagacities of living wisdom?
Wesley's supreme purpose was to make men vitally conscious of God.
He therefore had no desire to dictate the intellectual niceties associated with the divine work of redemption ; rather was he actuated by an impelling passion to be used of God, as a humble but active instrument, in the work of redemption.
With prophetic insight he recognised the insidious demons which were luring millions of his countrymen into the tangled labyrinths of moral corruption and spiritual death: and challenging the sway of those demons, he set about to release the victims from their woeful plight.
He saw the ecclesiastical machinery of his generation rusty and clogged with dust ; he chafed to cleanse it and set itin motion, for the redemption of the general populace.
His purpose was not to formulate a new theology or a new theory of Church or State, but'to touch dead bones with the breath of spiritual power, and make them live ; to release the winds of heaven, that they might blow upon the ashy embers of religion and kindle a purging, illuminating fire of righteousness and truth.
He would substitute for the bondage of sin, the liberty, individual and social, of men new-born after the similitude of Christ.
He would revive creative, life-giving Faith.
(i) The Practical Nature of the Revival That this passion for moral righteousness and inward freedom was the centre and essence of the Evangelical crusade, there can be no doubt.
In his treatise, The Character of a Methodist, written in 1742, Wesley says:
By salvation he means holiness of heart and life.
. It is nonsense for a woman to consider herself virtuous because she is not a prostitute, or a man honest because he does not steal.
May the Lord God preserve me from such a poor, starved religion as this.
Were this the mark of a Methodist, I would sooner be a sincere Jew, Turk or Pagan."
In the same booklet Wesley emphatically and unmistakably defines his position:
'' I would to God that all men knew that I and all who follow my judgment, do vehemently refuse to be distinguished from other men by any but the common principles of Christianity.
It is the plain old Christianity 1J. Wesley, op. cit., p. 5.
THE SHAPING OF
A CRUSADE
that I teach, renouncing and detesting all other marks of distinction.
But from real Christians, of whatever denomination they be, we earnestly desire not to be distinguished at all: not from any who sincerely follow after what they know they have not yet attained.
'Whosoever doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother'
. For opinions and terms let us not destroy the work of God.
Dost thou love and fear God?
It is enough!
I give thee the right hand of fellowship."
This tract also affords typical evidence that the very foundations of the Movement were ethical, practical and experimental rather than doctrinal, theoretical or metaphysical.
Its ideal disciple, Wesley declares, "loves every man as his own soul.
He loves his enemies, yea and the enemies of God—the evil and the unthankful.
And if it be not in his power to do good toward those that hate him, he ceases not to pray for them."
Again: " As he has time and opportunity he does good toward all men—unto neighbours and strangers, friends and enemies— not only to their bodies by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those that are sick or in prison, but much more does he labour to do good to their souls."
Wesley's true follower, moreover, '' Knows that vice does not lose its nature though it becomes ever so fashionable . . . He cannot follow a multitude to do evil."2
And referring to the accusation that he was striving to establish a new religious sect, Wesley writes :
"T should rejoice (so little ambitious am I to be the head of a sect or party) if the very name ° Methodist ' might never be mentioned more, but be buried in eternal oblivion."
Far from desiring to pose as the founder of a new credal or doctrinal system, Wesley says:
" To all opinions which do not strike at the roots of Christianity, we think and let think."*
In scores of Wesley's publications and thousands of his sermons, this practical outlook of the Revival was poignantly expressed : through all his manifold teaching it ran as a guiding thread.°
In his Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion (1743), a fine instance of vivid, sustained, logical argument, he says:
"' Love to God and to all mankind is the centre of religion.
- - This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world.
Wherever it is, 1J. Wesley, op. cit., p. 10.
2 Ibid., pp. 8 and tro.
3 [bid., p. 1.
5 R. Green collected 233 original publications by Wesley ; he preached, too, at least 42,000 sermons.
ENGLAND:
BEFORE
AND AFTER WESLEY
there are virtue and happiness going hand in hand.
There is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long-suffering, the whole image of God, and, at the same time, a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory."!
This social and brotherly love, Wesley taught must " express itself in every kind of beneficence, spreading virtue and happiness all around it"? ; while concerning the practical and imminent nature of vital faith, he here calls it " the ear of the soul, whereby the sinner hears the voice of the Son of God and lives."
It is "the eye of the new-born soul, whereby every true believer in God seeth Him that is invisible.''?
Pivotal however to Wesley's religion as was that creative faith, which needs must issue in works of service and love, he would tolerate no mouthing of cant phrases, no vain repetitions of theological formule.
'"'I find more profit in sermons on either good tempers, or good works," he protests,
'' than in what are vulgarly called 'Gospel Sermons.'
The term has now become a mere cant word : I wish none of our society would use it.
It has no determinate meaning.
Let but a pert, self-sufficient animal, that has neither sense nor grace, bawl out something about Christ, or His blood, or justification by faith, and his hearers cry out, ' What a fine Gospel sermon!'
We know no Gospel without salvation from sin.''?
Neither would Wesley countenance any individualistic, exclusive, monopolistic interpretation of religion.
To him religion was the be-all and end-all of life, and to exclude it from any department of human affairs was to maim and deform it.
No man, no creed, no class, therefore, dare call upon God for puny, selfish ends.
'' Christianity," he continually taught, "is essentially a social religion,' and "to turn it into a solitary religion is indeed to destroy it."4
In the Preface to the first Methodist Hymn Book (1739) Wesley wrote:
' The Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social, no holiness but social holiness.
'This command have we from Christ, that he who loves God loves his brother also."
The current modern notion that the Evangelical Revival was ridiculously individualistic and morbidly ' other-worldly " is completely false.
Human fellowship, co-operation and service were at its heart, and pulsed through all its life.
In a fearless, but characteristic University sermon, preached in St. Mary's, Oxford, in 1744, Wesley pictures Christianity as 1 Earnest Appeal, etc., p. 3.
Peeks soe * See John Wesley's Works (1872 edition), Vol. XIII, p. 36.
* Ibid., Vol. V, p. 296.
THE SHAPING OF
A CRUSADE
"beginning to exist in individuals," next, as "' spreading from one to another," and finally "as covering the earth."
Then, dramatically, he asks his congregation to pause "and survey this strange sight, a Christian world!''
It would be a world from which injustice, inequality, hatred, vice and war were forever banished : a world illumined by the spirit of Christ, and guided by the Golden Rule.
'' Where does this Christianity now exist?' asks Wesley.
'' Where, I pray, do the Christians live?
. It is utterly needful that someone should use great plainness of speech toward you.
. Let us confess we have never yet seen a Christian country upon the earth."
Finally, challenging Oxford, Wesley queries, "Is this city a Christian city?
Are all the Magistrates, all the Heads and Governors of Colleges and Halls, and their respective Societies
. of one heart and soul?
Is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts ?
And are our lives agreeable thereto?"
The sure hope of a better age, he pleaded, was a better man.
Only Christ's new man, could herald Christ's new world.
To Wesley, " a scheme to reconstruct society which ignored the redemption of the individual was unthinkable"
; ''a doctrine to save sinning men, with no aim to transform them into crusaders against social sin, was equally unthinkable."?
The earthly Civitas Det languished for lack of builders illumined by the vision and impelled by the spirit of the Land Immortal.
Again, the Rules of the Society of the People called Methodists illustrate the vital, practical purposes of the movement.
The Society consisted of groups of people "having the form, and seeking the power of godliness."
'They were "to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation."
And all who continued in the Society were " to evidence their desire of salvation," First, " by doing no harm, by avoiding evil in every kind " ; Secondly, "* by doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and as far as possible, to all men"
; Thirdly, '' by attending upon all the ordinances of God."
According to Wesley's Christian Negative, converts were to abstain from profaning the name of God or the day of God; from " buying or selling spiritous liquors, or drinking them"
; from "fighting, quarrelling, brawling " ; from " returning evil for evil or railing for railing"; from "' using many words in buying or selling" ; from all commerce in " uncustomed goods" ; from " giving or taking
1 See sermon, Scriptural Christianity.
pais ; ; Henry Carter, The Methodist (A Study in Discipleship), p. 174.