Today the Episcopal Church remembers the life and ministry of 2 Anglican priests, John and Charles Wesley, evangelists. Now you might be saying to yourself, “But they were Methodists!” I’ll try to make a long story short.
John was born in 1703 and Charles in 1707. They came from a pretty religious family. Their father, Samuel, was a priest, and their mother, Susanna, was the daughter of a minister. They both went to Oxford. While at school, there got together with a few friends and undertook a strict adherence to the worship and discipline of the Book of Common Prayer, so they got the nickname, “the Methodists.” After university, they were ordained as Anglican priests. John went off to the mission fields of Georgia in 1735, and Charles went as well, but as secretary of the governor of the colony.
Putting it mildly, John Wesley’s time in the Colonies was anything but pleasant. On his way over, John met Sophia Hopkey, and they eventually began dating. John broke off the relationship on the advice of another minister. Hopkey said that John had promised to marry her, and that he had broken his promise. John’s problems came to a head when he refused Hopkey communion. (Bad choice). She and her new husband, William Williamson, filed suit against Wesley. The case went to court and ended in a mistrial, but the damage was done. John left Georgia depressed.
On his return to England, John met up with the Moravians, a group of Christians he met on his way to Georgia. He began attending their prayer meetings, and during one of those meetings the following happened:
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
After that, John began preaching in the fields saying that “the whole world is my parish!” Charles joined him and became one the most prolific hymn writers in history. He produced 56 volumes of hymns in 53 years, producing in his lyrics what brother John called a “distinct and full account of scriptural Christianity.” “Charles Wesley,” Christianity Today : Christian History (2008).
The Methodists became known (and sometimes mocked) for their exuberant singing of Charles’s hymns. A contemporary observer recorded, “The song of the Methodists is the most beautiful I ever heard … They sing in a proper way, with devotion, serene mind and charm.” Id.
Charles Wesley quickly earned admiration for his ability to capture universal Christian experience in memorable verse. In the following century, Henry Ward Beecher declared, “I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley’s, ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul,’ than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth.” The compiler of the massive Dictionary of Hymnology, John Julian, concluded that “perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, [Charles Wesley was] the greatest hymn-writer of all ages.” Id.
Let us pray: Lord God, who inspired your servants John and Charles Wesley with burning zeal for the sanctification of souls, and endowed them with eloquence in speech and song: Kindle in your Church, we entreat you, such fervor, that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed, and those who have not known Christ may turn to him and be saved; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
CALENDAR REMINDERS
Tomorrow, Tuesday at 6 PM, Mardi Gras hosted by the Taylors. Enjoy the DJ, dancing, the food and fellowship.
Ash Wednesday at 6 PM with imposition of ashes and Eucharist.
Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550
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