We Need Another John Wesley

Few men change history in a significant sense; still fewer change it for good.  However, John Wesley was one of those rare individuals who truly impacted the world and his nation for good in a significant way that few men ever have.

Was their society that much different from our own, and are we going through a similar historical phase and sense of confusion, dislocation, despair, and decadence that was so common in Wesley’s day?

Wesley alone is said to have ridden more than 250,000 miles on horseback while preaching the message of God’s love, righteousness, and forgiveness over a fifty-year period in over 40,000 sermons, many of which were outdoors.

Wesley’s writings are vast, but he was not usually overtly political.  Rather, his thought and preaching could be represented as being about Christian faith or salvation and the righteous life of holy temperaments that accompany the Christian spiritual rebirth.  It is from this general Christian awakening of individuals to what is truly of value in life that we subsequently see the effects on social and political institutions, entertainment, education, and so forth.   

The Spirit of God tends to bring a practical clarity of thought or wisdom generally, as well as a practical appreciation of the present and a motivation to do what is truly right, which is simply not present without Godly Consideration. In many ways the eighteenth century would eventually prove to be, perhaps the greatest of centuries, but it certainly did not start out that way!   

We today, as in the early days of that century, lack a sense of value, direction, purpose, reason, commitment, proportion, and true fulfillment, and we are easily swayed or taken in by foolishness in our age of moral relativity and personal decadence, where crime, greed, drunkenness, materialism, hedonism, absurdism, and political compromise is almost commonplace.  Our situation is not unlike that of a “preawakened” decadent England of centuries past.  One must almost wonder if it is too late for a Christian awakening in our age and if laughter does not reverberate down the corridors of hell with the words: “Too late”?   

Still, Britain and America were brought to Gospel Spiritual life before when things looked almost this bad by reestablishing their Christian foundations and returning to holy and healthy family lives, and there is no reason why it cannot happen again in this great life drama called history.

--Frank N. Mitchell

From "The Writings of John Wesley" 1997