The Story From Oxford to Baltimore
Told from the preachers' journals, letters and printed narratives.
Wesley wrote in 1786 that in 1729 "four young students in Oxford, agreed to spend their evenings together." By 1735 they were fifteen, and the chief of them sailed for America.
On the voyage German Moravians "calmly sung on" through a storm. In February 1736 Spangenberg asked Wesley whether the Spirit of God bore witness with his spirit. On his voyage home, in the January before Aldersgate, Wesley wrote, "I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh, who shall convert me?"
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Spangenberg's question to Wesley in 1736 used the words of this verse.
Romans 8:16BSB
At Northampton in Massachusetts, a town Edwards gave as about 200 families, the stirring began late in December 1734. Edwards hoped that more than three hundred had been brought to Christ there in half a year.
The next May the work began to withdraw. The first sign Edwards names is a man who cut his own throat, and his letter of that June calls him "My Uncle Hawley". In Wales that month, at the sacrament at Talgarth on Whitsunday, Howell Harris knew his sins were forgiven, as he later wrote.
Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Edwards reported in his town the new birth Jesus named to Nicodemus.
John 3:3BSB
Four years later the church doors of Bristol were shut to George Whitefield. On 17 February he preached from a mount at Kingswood to the colliers.
Wesley first preached in the open on 2 April, to about three thousand by his own estimate, on Luke 4:18. That June he printed a letter to a friend: "I look upon all the world as my parish."
When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Whitefield's journal for that day calls the colliers sheep with no shepherd.
Matthew 9:36BSB
In Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin walked back down Market Street as Whitefield preached, and computed that he "might well be heard by more than thirty thousand."
At Enfield on 8 July 1741 Edwards preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Stephen Williams wrote in his diary that moaning and crying out filled the whole house before the sermon was done. The preacher had to stop.
Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
Williams names this verse as the text Edwards preached at Enfield.
At New Haven that September Edwards gave The Distinguishing Marks. Tears, trembling and outcries, he held, prove nothing either way, for "Scripture nowhere gives us any such Rule."
In Some Thoughts (1742) he warned the revival's friends against spiritual pride. He called it "the main Door, by which the Devil comes into the Hearts of those that are zealous for the Advancement of Religion". He judged it not unlikely that the work was the dawning of the glory foretold in Scripture, and that it would begin in America.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Edwards drew each of his marks from this chapter of 1 John.
1 John 4:1BSB
At Cambuslang near Glasgow the awakening began on 18 February 1742, by James Robe's dating. Whitefield wrote that "upwards of twenty thousand" heard him at its communion that July. The minister, William McCulloch, reported estimates of thirty to fifty thousand at the next, as Tyerman quotes him.
On 20 October 1743 a mob at Wednesbury carried Wesley through the town; he came away "having lost only one flap of my waistcoat". The next June he met clergy and lay preachers at the Foundery in London, the first Conference.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Wesley preached on this verse at Wednesbury at noon on the day of the mob.
Hebrews 13:8BSB
At Crossweeksung in New Jersey on 8 August 1745, David Brainerd counted about sixty-five Indians at his preaching. He died at Edwards's house at Northampton on 9 October 1747, and Edwards published his Life in 1749.
Northampton dismissed Edwards on 22 June 1750, after twenty-three years, over who should be admitted to the Lord's Supper. Samuel Hopkins gives the church's vote as above two hundred against twenty.
So the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
Brainerd preached that day on the parable of the great supper, Luke 14:16 to 23.
Luke 14:23BSB
Whitefield died at Newburyport early on 30 September 1770, the morning after he preached at Exeter. His will left mourning rings to the two Wesleys and asked nothing of a funeral sermon.
At the executors' request Wesley preached the funeral sermon in London on 18 November. He summed up Whitefield's teaching in two phrases, "the new birth, and justification by faith".
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”
Wesley took this verse as the text of his funeral sermon for Whitefield.
The Wesleys' Hymns and Sacred Poems printed "And can it be", and their book of 1740 printed "O for a Thousand Tongues to sing".
John Newton, once master of slave ships, became curate of Olney in 1764. He kept 10 March every year as the day of the storm that turned him, and with William Cowper he printed the Olney Hymns in 1779.
Then King David went in, sat before the LORD, and said, “Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?
Newton set this verse and the next over hymn 41 of the Olney Hymns.
Francis Asbury wrote at sea in September 1771, "I am going to live to God, and to bring others so to do." He landed at Philadelphia on 27 October. Thomas Coke wrote that Harry Hosier, who rode with Asbury, was one of the best preachers in the world, "though he cannot read".
Wesley's letter of 10 September 1784 made Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury joint superintendents of the Methodists in North America. Richard Allen called their conference at Baltimore that December "the beginning of the Episcopal Church amongst the Methodists".
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Wesley's letter sent elders to America to baptize and to give the Lord's Supper.
In Thoughts upon Slavery (1774) Wesley wrote that "Liberty is the right of every human creature". Olaudah Equiano was converted at Cadiz in 1774. In his Narrative of 1789 he wrote, "O, ye nominal Christians!" He asked whether they had learned the slave trade from their God.
Newton printed his "public confession" of his part in the trade in 1788. On 28 October 1787 Wilberforce wrote in his journal of "two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners." On 24 February 1791 Wesley wrote to him against "that execrable villainy, which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature."
In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.
Newton printed this verse on the title page of his Thoughts of 1788.
Matthew 7:12BSB
Matthew 9:36, Deuteronomy 32:35, 1 John 4:1, Hebrews 13:8, Luke 14:23, Numbers 23:10, 1 Chronicles 17:16, Matthew 28:19 and 1 more