John Wesley
1703–1791, England
Anglican priest and founder of Methodism. He organized the working class of England into small disciplined societies — class meetings — for mutual accountability and growth. When the established churches closed to him, he preached in fields, in the open air, in coal mines. "The world is my parish." He rode an estimated 250,000 miles on horseback over sixty years of ministry and preached 40,000 sermons. On May 24, 1738, at a meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, his heart was "strangely warmed" while someone read Luther's preface to Romans. He kept meticulous journals for sixty years.
On their voice
18th century Anglican English, ordered and urgent. Wesley kept meticulous journals and his prose reflects it — precise, factual, with a running awareness of both external events and interior states. He was deeply concerned about both personal holiness and what he called "social holiness" — you cannot be holy alone. He was impatient with a religion that was only feeling and never changed behavior. His doctrine of entire sanctification (perfect love) was controversial and he knew it.
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