John Wesley Issue 2 | 1983

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Warm heartfelt thanks to the many of you who have written in response to our “inaugural” issue devoted to Count Zinzendorf and the early Moravian missionary movement.

Requests and inquiries for subscriptions flow in on a daily basis and we regret that final plans for frequency of publication and subscription are still not settled. We hope to reach commitments and decisions on this shortly.

We are already at work on the life on John Wycliffe. This coming issue of Christian History will commemorate the 600th anniversary of his translation of the Bible into English.

This present issue, devoted to John Wesley, will prompt you to dig into his writings. And what a study is John Wesley! The essence of his message bursts forth from its eighteenth century shell with a contemporary prophetic and evangelistic power. Especially see the sermons in the special foldout section.

In the book Lord Vanity Samuel Shellabarger (we thank Frederick Maser for this citation) described the impact of Wesley on one of the characters in this novel:

In the churches of Venice and at his Jesuit school, Richard had heard sermons on this theme before, but Wesley had the gift of making it seem both new and ultimate. He spoke with an authority lacking to the urbane, rhetorical Abbati in their lofty pulpits. Why? Because of his own absolute singleness of purpose. It occurred to Richard, that behind Wesley’s voice, behind the thoughts he uttered, amplifying and authenticating them, lay the thousands of miles on horseback up and down England, lay the hardships, dangers, courage, poverty, effort, and persecution of the twenty years. Whatever he said was backed by that sanction. His power derived not only from believing but from living his doctrine. It was the power ...