John Wesley, the great evangelist, was born at Epworth Rectory, England, on June 28 (new style), 1703. He was the fifteenth child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. When John was only five years old the rectory was burned to the ground, and the family had a narrow escape from death. For six years Wesley was a pupil at Charterhouse School, and in 1720 he entered Oxford. He had only a little over two hundred dollars a year to live on, and his health was poor; but, nevertheless, he managed to get the most out of his studies. He was fond of riding and walking, was an expert swimmer, and played a good game of tennis.
On September 25, 1725, he was ordained deacon, and he preached frequently in the churches near Oxford. In 1726 he began to act as his father’s curate. He already displayed those talents for leadership which were to find so conspicuous a field in the evangelical revival.
On April 25, 1735, Wesley’s father died, and the following October John and his younger brother Charles, with two other Methodists, sailed for Georgia. John hoped to be able to convert the Indians to Christianity; but the mission was a failure.
On his return to England from Georgia, Wesley became the acknowledged leader of Methodism. He began itinerant preaching. No other preacher of the century had his mastery over an audience. He made his appeal to the conscience in the clearest language, with all the weight of personal conviction. Victory over sin was the goal he set before all his people.
Up to 1742 Wesley’s work was chiefly confined to London and Bristol and the country thereabout. But now he began to extend the territory over which he preached. In August, 1747, he paid his first visit to Ireland, where he had such success that he gave more than six years of his life to the country, and crossed the Irish Channel forty-two times. Wesley’s first visit to Scotland was in 1751. In all he paid twenty-two visits to that country.
Wesley generally traveled about five thousand miles in a year. This was a great strain upon his powers. In his encounters with the mob, however, his tact and courage never failed. He always looked a mob in the face, and appealed to its better feelings.
On March 2, 1791, John Wesley died in his house at City Road. He was eighty-eight years old.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 35, SERIAL No. 35
COPYRIGHT, 1913. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.