PART II JOHN WESLEY AND THE PEOPLE CALLED METHODISTS
Just as the Church of England had originated as part of a protest movement against the established practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, Methodism had its origin in the activities of John and Charles Wesley and a few students at Oxford University.
John Wesley, born in 1703, ordained as an Anglican priest, and named a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford in 1726, found himself together with his brother, Charles, and a friend, George Whitefield, also Anglican priests, in a group of en- thusiastic students pledged to frequent attendance at Holy Communion, a thorough and constant study of the Bible, and serious concern for the growing social problems of England. They deplored the decline of morals in society evidenced in at least one aspect in the literature of England in the eighteenth century. The commonly accepted laziness in the religious duties of the Anglican clergy shocked them into
working for some form of corrective action.
While accepting the traditional doctrines of historic Christianity, the Methodists did not emphasize doctrine as much as they did the power of the Holy Spirit to confirm the faith of the believer and transform his personal life, by believ- ing that the heart of religion is in the personal relationship with God, by simplicity of worship, by a close working arrangement between the clergy and the people of the church in the areas of worship and administration, by a regard for the improvement of the social conditions of the people, and by the formation of small groups of people for their religious and moral improvement.
“Indeed, I look upon the whole world as my parish”, said John Wesley. John Wesley referred to his followers as “the people called Methodists” from a humor- ous name applied to his adherents because of the methodical way in which the early Methodists performed their religious, social and educational labors. During his ministry, John Wesley rode over 250,000 miles on horseback which was equal to ten trips around the world. He preached over 40,000 sermons, and his brother, Charles Wesley, wrote over 6,500 hymns including “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Christ The Lord Is Risen,” and “Love Divine, All Love Excelling”.
The key to effective preaching is to be “neither too loud nor too long,” advised the 18th-century founder of Methodism, John Wesley. His view is contained in a handwritten letter of Nov. 18, 1765, presented by the Lewis Mohr family, descen- dants of a Methodist bishop, to Melrose United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Mo., as part of its celebration of American Methodism’s bicentennial. The letter, written to a young minister before he was sent to America, also advised him never to “sit up later than a quarter to 10” unless he was involved in a “watchnight prayer
service.”
1. METHODISTS ESTABLISH A SEPARATE CHURCH
Although John and Charles Wesley thought of their Wesleyan Methodist Socie- ty only as a revivalist movement of Constructive Criticism within the Church of
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