John and Charles Wesley - Two Brothers, One Faith

The Great Awakening in England in the eighteenth century was effectively started by two brothers. John and Charles Wesley were the youngest surviving sons of the large family of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. They were born in the rectory at Epworth in Lincolnshire, where their father served as the incumbent of the parish. John was born in 1703 and Charles in 1707.

Samuel Wesley was a high churchman, but the boys grandparents were non-conformists. Susanna Wesley was a remarkable woman of faith and diligence, whose influence on John and Charles was extremely strong.

John and Charles Wesley attended different schools, but each went up to Oxford University. John entered Christ Church Oxford in 1720. Charles followed his brother to Christ Church in 1726, just as John finished his course and was elected a fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford.

While John was away from Oxford serving as his father’s curate back in Epworth, Charles started the “Holy Club”. On his return to Oxford in 1729, John took over the leadership of the club, much to the delight of his young brother. They were given the nickname “Methodists” because of their desire to be methodical in their lifestyle and worship of God.

One of the younger members of the club was George Whitefield. He was the son of a wine merchant and innkeeper. When the Wesleys left Oxford, George took over the leadership of the Holy Club.

Meanwhile, the Wesleys were determined to continue their service of God. In 1735 they travelled to the America – the New World, and landed in Georgia at the start of February 1736. John was to be a chaplain in Savannah. Charles acted as secretary to the governor of the colony, James Oglethorpe. On the journey over, they met a group of Moravian Christians, and were impressed by their devotion to the Lord Jesus and their care of their fellow passengers.

Things did not go well for either brother in America. Charles’ religious zeal made him enemies. He returned to England after six months. Similarly, John’s strictness and inflexible character was not suited to life in the colonies either. He remained in Georgia for nearly two years, but arrived back in London feeling himself to be somewhat of a failure. He wrote in his diary, ‘‘I went to America to convert the Indians, but O! Who shall convert me?!’ Who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief?”

It was around this time in 1738 that John went to a Moravian religious meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, which transformed his view of what it meant to be a Christian. A passage from Martin Luther’s “Preface to the Romans” was being read.

‘A quarter before nine, while the speaker was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed,’ wrote John in his journal. ‘I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’

In the goodness of God, Charles had come to the same understanding only three days earlier.

Convinced that the people of Britain must hear the good news of salvation, Charles and John took to open-air preaching, believing that their call was to travel from place to place to preach the gospel of Christ.

As a strict churchman, John initially found this practice of open-air preaching disagreeable. For him, the pulpit was the only proper place for the proclamation of the gospel. However when he heard George Whitefield preach in the open-air in Bristol in 1739 to thousands of people, he recognised the opportunity for the gospel and dived wholeheartedly into the experience. He preached to a group of about three thousand people on his first attempt. From then on, his was an itinerant ministry. Over time he gathered a band of lay preachers to assist in the mission for Christ.

In the early days, Charles spent a great deal of time in itinerant ministry with his brother.  

Before he left for America, George Whitefield thought Charles to be the greatest preacher in England. However, Charles is best known for his fine musicianship and hymn writing.  In his lifetime he penned around 7000 hymns and poems, some of which are still in use in churches around the world today.

The Wesleys travelled on horseback to nearly every part of the British Isles during his preaching ministry. John trained his horse to ride slowly, allowing him to read loads of books on each journey between preaching engagements. Along with their lay preachers, they established societies of Bible believers wherever they could, encouraging each society to meet weekly for prayer and praise.

Methodism spread rapidly. There was never any intention for these societies to be in competition with the established church, as members of the societies were exhorted to attend their local parish church every week. However, the Methodists were viewed with suspicion and even hostility by many local clergy, many of whom were insecure in their ministries and felt threatened by a growing Methodist movement that disregarded parochial boundaries.  

As the Wesley brothers travelled the highways and byways of the British and Irish countryside to preach the gospel of Christ in villages, towns and cities, they were regularly met with bitter opposition. Often they were stoned, beaten, and forced by violent mobs to leave their areas and not return. The brothers, however, felt it a great privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ, and they persevered in the mission to reach the lost with the good news of Jesus.

The influence of John and Charles was to extend beyond their own lifetimes. Although John was unable to keep the Methodist movement within the Church of England – with the separation coming four years after his death in 1791 (Charles having died in 1788) – today there are tens of millions of Methodists all over the world.

The writing on John’s tomb captures accurately not only his life, but by extension the life of his brother Charles too. It is a fitting tribute to two men who, by the grace of God, changed the world:

This GREAT LIGHT arose

(By the singular Providence of God)

To enlighten THESE NATIONS,

And to revive, enforce and defend,

The Pure Apostolic DOCTRINES and PRACTICES of

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH:

Which he continued to do, both by his WRITINGS and his LABOURS

For more than HALF A CENTURY:

And to his inexpressible Joy,

Not only, beheld their INFLUENCE extending,

And their EFFICACY witness’d,

In the Hearts and Lives of MANY THOUSANDS,

As well in THE WESTERN WORLD as in THESE KINGDOMS:

But also far above all human Power of Expectation,

Liv’d to see PROVISION made by the singular Grace of GOD,

For their CONTINUANCE and ESTABLISHMENT,

TO THE JOY OF FUTURE GENERATIONS,

READER If thou art constrained to bless the INSTRUMENT,

GIVE GOD THE GLORY.