The Christian Way
1. THE CHRISTIAN WAY
Gratitude For Our Conversion Thee will I love, my strength, my tower; Thee will I love, my joy, my crown; Thee will I love with all my power, In all my works and Thee alone!
Thee will I love, till the pure fire Fill my whole soul with chaste desire.
Ah! why did I so late Thee know, Thee, lovelier than the sons of men!
Ah! why did I no sooner go To Thee, the only ease in pain!
Ashamed I sigh, and inly mourn That I so late to Thee did turn.
In darkness willingly I stray'd; I sought Thee, yet from Thee I roved:
Far wide my wandering thoughts were spread, Thy creatures more than Thee I loved.
And now, if more at length I see, 'Tis through Thy light, and comes from Thee.
I thank Thee, Uncreated Sun, That Thy bright beams on me have shined; I thank Thee, who hast overthrown
My foes, and heal'd my wounded mind; I thank Thee, whose enlivening voice Bids my freed heart in Thee rejoice.
Give to my eyes refreshing tears; Give to my heart, chaste, hallow'd fires; Give to my soul, with filial fears, The love that all heaven's host inspires:
'That all my powers with all their might In Thy sole glory may unite.'
Thee will I love, my joy, my crown!
Thee will I love, my Lord, my God!
Thee will I love, beneath Thy frown Or smile, Thy sceptre or Thy rod.
What though my flesh and heart decay?
Thee shall I love in endless day!
From the German of Johann Angelus Scheffler Poetical Works, Vol. 1. pp 176-7 To abandon all, to strip one's self of all, in order to seek and to follow Jesus Christ naked to Bethlehem, where He was born; naked to the hall where He was scourged; and naked to Calvary, where He died on the Cross, is so great a mercy, that neither the thing, nor the knowledge of it, is given to any, but through faith in the Son of God.
Works Vol. XI p.435
Q What was the rise of Methodism, so called?
A In 1729, two young men, reading the Bible, saw they could not be saved without holiness, followed after it, and incited others to do so. In 1737, they saw holiness comes by
faith. They saw likewise that men are justified before they are sanctified; but still holiness was their point. God then thrust them out, utterly against their will, to raise a holy people.
Works, Vol. VIII, p. 300 Minutes of the first Annual Conference.
I was early warned against laying, as the papists do, too much stress on outward works - or on a faith without works; which, as it does not include, so it will never lead to, true hope or charity. . . . but before God's time was come, I fell among some Lutheran and Calvinist authors, whose confused and indigested accounts magnified faith to such an amazing size that it quite hid the rest of the commandments. I did not see then that this was the natural effect of their overgrown fear of popery, being so terrified with the cry of merit and good works that they plunged at once into the other extreme. In this labyrinth I was utterly lost, not being able to find out what the error was, nor yet to reconcile this uncouth hypothesis either with Scripture or common sense.
The English writers, such as Bishop Beveridge, Bishop Taylor and Mr Nelson, a little relieved me from these well-meaning, wrong-headed Germans. Their accounts of Christianity I could easily see to be, in the main, consistent both with reason and Scripture. Only when they interpreted Scripture in different ways I was often much at a loss. And again, there was one thing much insisted on in Scripture - the unity of the Church — which none of them, I thought, clearly explained or strongly inculcated.
Journal Sun 8 January 1738 Q What is faith?
A Faith, in general, is a divine supernatural evidence or manifestation of things not seen, i.e. of past, future, or spiritual things. 'Tis a spiritual sight of God and the things of God. Therefore repentance is a low species of faith, i.e. a supernatural sense of an offended God. Justifying faith is a supernatural inward sense or sight of God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. First, a sinner is convinced by the Holy Ghost: "Christ loved me and gave himself for me".
This is that faith by which he is justified, or pardoned, the moment he receives it. Immediately the same Spirit bears witness. "Thou art pardoned, thou hast redemption in his blood". And this is saving faith, whereby the love of God is shed abroad in his heart.
Works, Vol. VIII p. 275, Minutes of the first Annual Conference, June 25th, 1744
If you allow that it is reasonable to love God, to love mankind and to do good to all men, you cannot but allow that religion which we preach and live to be agreeable to the highest reason.
Perhaps this is all you can bear. It is tolerable enough, and if we spoke only of being 'saved by love' you should have no great objection: but you do not comprehend what we say of being 'saved by faith'. I know you do not. You do not in any degree comprehend what we mean by that expression. Have patience, then, and I will tell you yet again.
By those words 'we are saved by faith', we mean that the moment a man receives that faith which is above described he is saved from doubt and sorrow of heart, by a peace that passes all understanding; from the heaviness of a wounded spirit by joy unspeakable; and from his sins, of whatever kind they were, from vicious desires, as well as words and
actions, by the love of God and of all mankind then shed abroad in his heart.
An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion 1743, paras. 22 and 23.
Should it still be inquired, 'How does the Spirit of God "bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God," so as to exclude all doubt, and evince the reality of our sonship?' - the answer is clear from what has been observed above. And first, as to the witness of our spirit: the soul as intimately and evidently perceives when it loves, delights, and rejoices in God, as when it loves and delights in anything on earth. And it can no more doubt, whether it loves, delights, and rejoices or no, than whether it exists or no. If, therefore, this be just reasoning.'
He that now loves God, that delights and rejoices in Him with an humble joy, an holy delight, and an obedient love, is a child of God:
But I thus love, delight, and rejoice in God; Therefore, I am a child of God.
Then a Christian can in no wise doubts of his being a child of God. Of the former proposition he has as full an assurance as he has that the Scriptures are of God; and of his thus loving God, he has an inward proof, which is nothing short of self-evidence. Thus, the testimony of our own spirit is with the most intimate conviction manifested to our hearts, in such a manner, as beyond all reasonable doubt to evince the reality of our sonship.
Sermons, Vol. 1, p. 209f.
Some are fond of the expression (assurances): I am not; I
hardly ever use it. But I will simply declare (having neither leisure nor inclination to draw the saw of controversy concerning it) what are my present sentiments with regard to the thing which is usually meant thereby.
I believe a few, but very few, Christians have an assurance from God of everlasting salvation; and that is the thing which the Apostle terms the plerophory or full assurance of hope.
I believe more have such an assurance of being now in the favour of God as excludes all doubt and fear. And this, if I do not mistake, the Apostle means by the plerophory or full assurance of faith.
I believe a consciousness of being in the favour of God (which I do not term plerophory, or full assurance, since it is frequently weakened, nay, perhaps interrupted, by returns of doubt or fear) is the common privilege of Christians, fearing God and working righteousness.
Yet I do not affirm there are no exceptions to this general rule. Possibly some may be in the favour of God, and yet go mourning all the day long. But I believe this is usually owing either to disorder of body or ignorance of the gospel promises.
Therefore I have not for many years thought a consciousness of acceptance to be essential to justifying faith.
And after I have thus explained myself once for all, I think without any evasion or ambiguity, I am sure without any self-contradiction, I hope all reasonable men will be satisfied. And whoever will still dispute with me on this head must do it for disputing's sake.
Works, Vol. XIV, pp. 360-1 There is no love of God without patience, and no patience without lowliness and sweetness of spirit.
Humility and patience are the surest proofs of the increase of love.
Humility alone unites patience with love; without which it is impossible to draw profit from suffering; or indeed, to avoid complaint, especially when we think we have given no occasion for what men make us suffer.
Works Vol. XI, p.436
Expect contradiction and opposition, together with crosses of various kinds. Consider the words of St. Paul: 'To you it is given, in the behalf of Christ' - for His sake, as a fruit of His death and intercession for you - 'not only to believe, but also to suffer from His sake' (Phil. i. 29). It is given! God gives you this opposition or reproach; it is a fresh token of His lovei'And will you disown the Giver; or spurn
His gift, and count it a misfortune? Will you not rather say, 'Father, the hour is come, that Thou shouldest be glorified:
Now Thou givest Thy child to suffer something for Thee:
Do with me according to Thy will?' Know that these things, far from being hinderances to the work of God, or to your soul, unless by your own fault, are not only unavoidable in the course of Providence, but profitable, yea, necessary, for you. Therefore, receive them from God (not from chance) with willingness, with thankfulness. Receive them from men with humility, meekness, yieldingness, gentleness, sweetness.
Works, Vol. XI, p. 433; First published 1762; re-issued in A Plain Account of Christian Perfection Mil
The perfection I hold is so far from being contrary to the doctrine of our Church, that it is exactly the same which every Clergyman prays for every Sunday: "Cleanse the
thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name". I mean neither more nor less than this.
Works, Vol. X, 450 The 'gospel preachers' so called corrupt their hearers; they vitiate their taste, so that they cannot relish sound doctrine; and spoil their appetite, so that they cannot turn it into nourishment; they, as it were, feed them with sweetmeats, till the genuine wine of the kingdom seems quite insipid to them. They give them cordial upon cordial, which make them all life and spirit for the present; but meantime their appetite is destroyed, so that they can neither retain nor digest the pure milk of the Word.
This was the very case when I went last into the North.
For some time before my coming John Downes had scarce been able to preach at all: the three others in the Round were such as styled themselves 'gospel preachers'. When I came to review the Societies, with great expectation of finding a vast increase, I found most of them lessened by one third; one entirely broken up; that of Newcastle itself was less by a hundred members than when I visited it before; and of those that remained, the far greater number in every place were cold, weary, heartless, and dead. Such were the blessed effects of this gospel-preaching, of this new method of preaching Christ!
On the other hand, when in my return I took an account of the Societies in Yorkshire, chiefly under the care of John
Nelson, one of the old way, in whose preaching you could find no life, no food, I found them all alive, strong, and vigorous of soul, believing, loving, praising God their
Saviour, and increased in number from eighteen or nineteen hundred to upwards of three thousand. These had been
continually fed with that wholesome food which you could neither relish nor digest. From the beginning they had been taught both the law and the gospel.|'God loves you: therefore love and obey him. Christ died for you: therefore die to sin. Christ is risen: therefore rise in the image of God.
Christ liveth evermore: therefore live to God, till you live with Him in glory.'
So we preached; and so you believed. This is the scriptural way, the Methodist way, the true way. God grant we may never turn therefrom, to the right hand or to the left.
Letters, Vol. Ill, pp. 81-5 God is the first object of our love: Its next office is, to bear the defects of others. And we should begin the practice of this amidst our own household.
We should chiefly exercise our love towards them who most shock either our way of thinking, or our temper, or our knowledge, or the desire we have that others should be as virtuous as we wish to be ourselves.
Works, Vol. XL, p. 438