The Message Of Full Salvation As Interpreted By The Wesleys, And The Revival Which It Brought

Passing from the Bible itself into the pages of later history, many mighty exponents of full salvation truth are seen to have their place, among whom, standing unchallenged in spiritual leadership, are John and Charles Wesley.

There can be no reasonable doubt as to the content of the message which they gave to the world, nor as to its results both immediate and in its wider reach: John, with his sermons and other voluminous writings, and Charles, with his marvelous poetic gift, creating an emphasis both vital and distinct.

It was through these men and their spiritual contemporaries that God restored to the Church, after its lapse into spiritual deadness, the Pauline conception of redeeming grace, and thereby started the flow of floodtides of salvation destined to girdle the globe.

We shall best get to the heart of our present study as we consider:

First, the background against which this work of God appeared;

Further, the instruments whom God so mightily used in its prosecution;

Finally, the message which God so signally honored.

I. The Background Seen

The eighteenth century conditions as the Wesleys and their contemporaries found them.

Broadly speaking, these conditions may be stated as threefold in their manifestation: the teaching of rationalism, the spirit of materialism, and the canker of social corruption.

A. The Teaching of Rationalism

Historians characterize the eighteenth century as in many ways distinctive. Deistic philosophy had made its destructive inroads. Scientific knowledge was making remarkable advance. Political changes were in the air.

In France, atheistic forces were working out what history now knows as the French Revolution. In Germany, nationalism was embodying itself in the armed might of Frederick the Great. In America, the Revolutionary War was being waged. In Britain, serious minds were giving themselves to the pursuit of learning. But few, anywhere, were eagerly seeking after God.

B. The Spirit of Materialism

In matters of religion conditions are said to have been deplorable. By a series of wicked purges and persecutions, saintly men had been robbed of their churches, and their places had been filled with time servers, place seekers, and wire pullers. The Puritan fire had ceased to burn, having been transferred through the Pilgrims to the American colonies.

Within the Church, the one place above all others which should have been throbbing with life, death reigned; thus the place which should have been alive with spiritual motion had deteriorated into the mockery of a spiritual morgue.

C. The Canker of Social Corruption

If the descriptions of historians approximate in any degree toward reality, a more complete moral and spiritual breakdown would be difficult to imagine.

There had developed a general indifference to life's finer things, not only among the common people, but also in the high places of the land, even in the court of the king himself.

Drunkenness was the general rule. Vice walked naked and unashamed. Language was foul and obscene. The marriage vow was no longer held sacred. Ignorance, superstition, brutality, crime, and lawlessness were the order of the day. Slave trading flourished. Press gangs roamed the streets taking men by force to man the slave ships. The theater is described as having been "a hotbed of vice surrounded by a halo of brothels."

Criminal laws were a mere parody on justice. Both adults and children are said to have been hanged for no fewer than a hundred and sixty different violations. Executions were so numerous that they became known as Hanging Shows. Often ten to fifteen persons were hanged at one time, and their bodies left to rot on the gallows by the roadside.

Prison life in England is described as a living death, prisoners being chained with their backs to the foul stone floor, having iron spiked chains around their necks, lying in filth which was sickening, often causing fever and death.

It was over all this that the Spirit of God began to sweep; and by reason of His mighty working, a transformation was wrought which has amazed the world.

II. The Instruments Used

We have used the words instruments with set purpose here. That is what a soul wholly at the divine disposal really is -- an instrument of righteousness unto God. Such were these men, John and Charles Wesley, and their associates. They claimed no miraculous powers in their work, and asked no favors for the service they gave.

Three things, however, were outstanding concerning them:

1. They knew a personal contact with God -- and did not hesitate to date it.

They knew when the experience of grace began, and where the miracle happened. John Wesley himself never forgot that room in Aldersgate Street and the new experience it brought on Wednesday, May 24, 1738.

Thrilling stories of more than thirty of his helpers, in a set of books entitled Wesley's Veterans, tell a similar story concerning each of these men, all of whom knew God and His power to save to the uttermost.

2. They had a clear conception as to what they believed -- and were not slow to state it.

Their experience was not some hazy, misty, nebulous thing, dependent upon their changing emotional urges. It was based on an intelligent faith which provided a sure anchorage for the soul.

3. They had convincing testimonies and vital messages -- which their souls burned to deliver.

Their utterances were dynamic and powerful. They were fearless and courageous; and, as they spoke, God never failed to honor His Word through their instrumentality.

Turning again to John Wesley, it is interesting to place him alongside Paul the Apostle and note the striking comparison between the two.

This is seen in their religious backgrounds.

In both men the background was legalistic. Not the same kind of legalism, to be sure -- one was Jewish and the other Christian -- But legalism nonetheless.

Paul put it thus:

"If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Phil. 3:4-7).

Wesley had certainly known the struggle of his legal years, as the record of his Oxford days so clearly shows. Yet even those years were by no means wasted. They rather became a sounding board for his victorious testimony when finally he learned the secret of redeeming grace.

His brother Charles expressed it in poetic form:

Oh, that I might at once go up,
No more on this side Jordan stop,
But now the land possess;
This moment end my legal years,
Sorrow and sins and doubts and fears
A howling wilderness.

It was further seen in their scholastic attainments.

They were both men of the schools. Certainly it is a far cry from the feet of Gamaliel to the halls of Oxford; yet in each case God was preparing His man.

It was also seen in their evangelistic passion:

Paul, in his arduous missionary journeys: facing dangers, seeking sinners, founding churches, establishing believers.

Wesley, in his work in Britain: riding horseback almost day and night, stopping to preach, counsel, eat, and sleep.

Nothing but that preaching with its mighty revival results under the power of the Holy Ghost saved eighteenth century England from the bloody revolution which at that time swept through France. England owed its salvation to its diminutive evangelist on horseback.

John Wesley traveled in evangelistic labors, mostly on horseback, 226,000 miles. He preached at least 46,000 sermons, published 223 books and pamphlets, and made a profit on his writings of $150,000. He never spent more than $150 a year on himself, and died leaving less than $50. All he was and all he had -- his time, talents, possessions, influence, spirit, soul, and body -were once and forever on the altar of consecration, a living sacrifice unto God.

Earl Baldwin, England's one-time prime minister, once said of him: "I am supposed to be a busy man, but by the side of Wesley I join the ranks of the unemployed."

It was this consciousness of commission, divine assignment, sacred trust, which gave birth to the hymn which Charles Wesley formulated, but which was the burden of the entire group:

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill;
Oh, may it all my powers engage
To do my Master's will.

Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And, oh, Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!

Help me to watch and pray,
And on thyself rely,
Assured, if I my trust betray,
I shall forever die.

III. The Message Brought

The character of that early Wesleyan message was distinctive. No effort was made to match the intellectual attack of Deism, although both in intellect and in scholarship Wesley would have had nothing to fear. His chief concern was not to defend the Christian revelation but to declare it, and then to enforce its truth by the testimony he gave.

Those first Methodists were Bible Christians possessing a deep, inwrought personal experience. They prayed, preached, testified, and sang with all the unction and power of a vital, old-fashioned Christianity. Three things characterized their witness:

A. The fact of a rugged evangelism.

Above all else, these men were evangelists. With them, nothing else mattered but the fact of winning men to God. Wesleyan evangelism had at least three distinctive expressions:

1. Its outlook was broad: as broad as the world's great need.

With the insistence that the world was his parish, John Wesley set out on horseback and preached wherever a crowd would listen, averaging more than fifteen sermons every week. He believed that God's great salvation should be offered to all men, not as a kindly gesture merely so that the elect for whom it was really intended might receive it, but as the divinely made provision for the whole wide world.

He started out from Aldersgate Street after the experience of that May evening in 1738, a new man with a new message on a new mission for God.

As the churches closed against him, he turned to the prisons, workhouses, fields, and streets.

This fine breadth of outlook was put into verse for his followers to sing:

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast;
Let every soul be Jesus' guest.
Ye need not one be left behind,
For God hath bidden all mankind.

Sent by my Lord, to you I call;
The invitation is to all:
Come, all the world; come, sinner, thou!
All things in Christ are ready now.

Only one thing could inspire an outlook like that: the indwelling Spirit of the redeeming Christ.

2. Its compassion was deep: as deep as the fact of human sin.

See that stately Oxford scholar. He is conducting a street meeting. Who does he expect will attend? Certainly not those of his own social station. Their religion is much too formal for that kind of thing. Here is another sample of what they would be likely to sing, suggesting whom they expected to have in the crowd:

Outcasts of men, to you I call,
Harlots, and publicans, and thieves.
He spreads His arms to embrace you all;
Sinners alone His grace receives.
No need of Him the righteous have;
He came the lost to seek and save.

One thing alone could account for compassion like that: a conscious identification with the compassionate Christ of Calvary.

3. Its spirit was persistent: through evil report and good report they went determinedly on.

They were slandered, reviled, mobbed, misrepresented, abused; but they never weakened in their persistent endeavor to spread the good news.

Here are two examples taken from among many:

At Gorton's Green

I made haste to Gorton's Green, near Birmingham, where I had appointed to preach at six. But it was dangerous for any who stood to hear, for the stones and dirt were flying from every side, almost without intermission, for near an hour . . . . I afterwards met the Society, and exhorted them, in spite of men and devils, to continue in the grace of God.

At Falmouth

I rode to Falmouth. Almost as soon as I was set down, the house was beset on all sides . . . . A louder or more confused noise could hardly be at the taking of a city. "The rabble roared with all their throats, Bring out the canorum" --an unmeaning word which the Cornish people generally used instead of Methodist.

No answer being given, they quickly forced open the door and filled the passage. only a wainscot partition was between us, which was not likely to stand long . . . . Indeed at that time, to all appearances our lives were not worth an hour's purchase.... Some coming up together, set their shoulders to the door.... Away went the hinges and the door fell into the room. I stepped forward at once and said, Here I am .....

Only one thing could produce and sustain an unquenchable zeal under circumstances such as these: an irrevocable consecration from which there was no turning back.

B. The force of a radical emphasis.

These men were essentially evangelists, but they were in no sense religious entertainers; to them evangelism was a serious business.

1. It went out to the sinner, lost in his sin.

Wesley had nothing but love and compassion for the sinful soul, and ardently proclaimed it. He attacked and exposed sin, however, with all the strength at his command.

Sin, to him, was not something to be discussed or argued about. It was a hellish thing to be repented of, confessed, forsaken, and divinely forgiven.

Here is a sample of Wesleyan thought with regard to sin as put into verse for congregational song:

Wretched, helpless, and distrest,
Ah! whither shall I fly?
Ever gasping after rest,
I cannot find it nigh.
Naked, sick, and poor and blind,
Fast bound in sin and misery,
Friend of sinners, let me find
My help, my all, in Thee.

I am all unclean, unclean;
Thy purity I want.
My whole heart is sick of sin
And my whole head is faint.
Full of putrefying sores,
Of bruises, and of wounds, my soul
Looks to Jesus, help implores,
And gasps to be made whole.

Stanzas such as these written and sung by members of the Wesley family, with all their High Church dignity, are a revelation indeed. What but a divine unveiling of the exceeding sinfulness of sin could have inspired it?

It was on this emphasis that God so mightily placed His seal, manifesting himself in overwhelming convicting power.

Here are three examples of this:

April 17, 1739

At Baldwin Street, we called upon God to confirm His Word. Immediately one that stood by cried out aloud with the Utmost vehemence, even in the agonies of death

May 1, 1739

At Baldwin Street, my voice could scarcely be heard amid the groanings of some and the cries of others, calling aloud to Him that is mighty to save.

A Quaker who stood by was very angry and was biting his lips and knitting his brows, when he dropped down as if thunder struck. The agony he was in was terrible to behold. We prayed for him, and he soon lifted up his head with joy, and joined us in thanksgiving.

May 21, 1739-An Outdoor Service.

While I was preaching, God began to make bare His arm, not in a closed room, neither in private, but in an open air service and before more than 2,000 witnesses. One, and another, and another were struck to the earth, exceedingly trembling at the presence of His power.

It is not our intention to suggest here that only such manifestations may be taken as authenticating the message; it would seem, however, that the fact of their repeated appearance is at least an indication of the divine blessing upon it. That, at least, was Wesley's understanding of these things.

2. It concerned the believer, and God's power toward him.

The message of Wesleyan evangelism by no means exhausted itself in its worldward phase. Its emphasis was among the Spirit-born.

This second phase brought further conflict, although this time more refined in its character. Now the opposition was not physical, yet no less difficult to meet. It may be defined as twofold:

a. The error of Zinzendorfianism.

Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian leader, seems to have been the chief antagonist here, although in other phases of his spiritual experience there appears to have been much to admire.

Among the Moravians, Wesley had seen manifestations of confident assurance which only a conscious salvation could bring. It was natural therefore that, following his spiritual awakening, he should expect to find some measure of fellowship among them. Approaching the sin question, however, he soon discovered that their theory of deliverance from it differed radically from his own. It is here that we contact the classic example of what has become known as the get-it-all-at-once theory.

As quoted by Wesley, the teaching of Count Zinzendorf was as follows: Immediately saving faith is exercised in Jesus Christ the heart is instantly made pure. There is no need of any further work of grace; conversion settles it all.

It was to combat this error that Wesley preached two historic sermons: one, to prove that even after conversion sin as an indwelling principle remained in every Spirit-born child of God; the other, to show that by a further work of grace this remaining carnality could be removed. Excerpts from each will help us here.

"Many well meaning men, particularly those under the direction of the late Count Zinzendorf . . . affirming that "An true believers are not only saved from the dominion of sin, but from the being of inward as well as outward sin, so that it no longer remains in them."

"We allow that the state of a justified person is inexpressibly great and glorious.... But was he not freed from all sin so that there is no sin in his heart? I cannot say this; I cannot believe it because St. Paul says the contrary. He is speaking to believers in general when he says: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: these are contrary the one to the other." Gal. 5:17.

"Nothing can be more expressive. The apostle here directly affirms that the flesh, evil nature, opposes the Spirit, even in believers; that even in the regenerate there are two principles, contrary the one to the other."

"And as to this position, There is no sin in a believer, no carnal mind, no bent to backsliding, is thus contrary to the Word of God, so it is to the experience of His children . The doctrine that there is no sin in believers, is quite new in the Church of Christ. It was never heard of for seventeen hundred years: never till it was discovered by Count Zinzendorf". -- From sermon, "On Sin in Believers"

"Although we may, by the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, resist and conquer both outward and inward sin; although we may weaken our enemies day by day: yet we cannot drive them out. By all the grace given at justification we cannot extirpate them . . . . Most surely we cannot, till it please our Lord to speak to our hearts again, to speak the second time, "Be clean"; and then only the leprosy is cleansed. Then only, the evil root, the carnal mind is destroyed, and inbred sin subsists no more.

"Believe the glad tidings of great Salvation which God hath prepared for all people. Believe that He who is the brightness of His Father's glory, the express image of His person is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through Him. He is able to save you from all the sin that cleaves to your words and actions . . . . He now saith "Be thou clean", only believe and you will immediately find' "all things are possible to him that believeth." -- From sermon, "On the Repentance of Believers"

b. The hostility of his fellow churchmen.

The chief offending expression here seems to have been that word perfection, although it would seem that the word itself was not of Wesley's own choosing. "I have no particular fondness for the term Perfection," he wrote. "It is my opponents who thrust it upon me continually, and ask me what I mean by it."

These old-time tactics seem strangely modern, don't they?

Actually, Wesley's terminology was far from limited to one word. It was wide and varied. With Dr. J. A. Wood's book Christian Perfection as Taught by John Wesley as a guide, we recently made a study of the expressions Wesley used, and found it to be interesting indeed. Here are some of them in the paragraphs in which they occur; taken mostly from his Journal.

"The moment a sinner is justified his heart is cleansed in a low degree; yet he has not a clean heat, in the full, proper sense, till he is made perfect in love.

"I spoke, one by one, to the society at Hutton-Rudby. They were about eighty in number, of whom near seventy were believers, and sixteen (probably) renewed in love.

"Abundance have been convicted of sin, very many have found peace with God and in

London only I believe full two hundred have been brought into glorious liberty.

"A little after preaching one came to me who believed God had set her soul at full liberty.

"Many others are groaning after Full Salvation.

"I scarcely ever saw the people here so much alive to God; particularly those who believe

they are saved from sin. Nothing is more clear, according to the plain Bible account, than sanctification -- pure love reigning in the heart and life.

"A second change whereby they shall be saved from all sin and perfected in love.

"Six or seven in this society still rejoice in the pure love of God.

"That point, entire Salvation from inbred sin.

"It is well, as soon as any of them find peace with God, to exhort them to go on to perfection.

"On Saturday a few met in Mr. Hunter's room who were athirst for Full Sanctification.

"I met again with those who believe that God has delivered them from the root of bitterness.

"Here I found some who had been laboring long to work themselves into Holiness."

Note then these eighteen expressions: "cleansed," "a clean heart," "made perfect in love," "renewed in love," "brought into glorious liberty," "set at full liberty," "groaning after Full Salvation," "alive to God," "saved from sin," "sanctification," "a second change," "saved from all sin," "perfected in love," "rejoice in the pure love of God," "Entire Salvation from inbred sin," "Perfection," "delivered from the root of bitterness," "Holiness."

Who, with any degree of Christian charity, could reasonably complain concerning a vocabulary as broad as this?

The story of Wesley's fight against those who opposed his teaching cannot be told here. Suffice it to say, he stood firm and won through, preaching holiness as a second work of grace right to the end of his days.

C. The flow of a radiant experience.

Wesley's evangelistic effort and sound doctrinal teaching were by no means the sum total of the eighteenth century revival. All we have considered thus far was a product of something else -- a deep, inwrought, personal, spiritual experience.

What these men knew themselves became contagious in the lives of others.

1. It brought to its recipients an assured salvation.

Its first mark was spiritual confidence. Those early Methodists were saved and knew it. This confidence was expressed in testimony and song. To this their early hymnal is a witness. One hymn out of many will be a sufficient example.

How can a sinner know
His sins on earth forgiven?
How can my gracious Saviour show
My name inscribed in heaven?
What we have felt and seen
With confidence we tell,
And publish to the sons of men
The signs infallible.

We who in Christ believe
That He for us hath died,
We all His unknown peace receive
And feel His blood applied.
Exults our rising soul,
Disburdened of her load,
And swells unutterably full
Of glory and of God.

We by His Spirit prove
And know the things of God,
The things that freely by His love
He hath on us bestowed.
His Spirit to us He gave,
And dwells in us we know;
The witness in ourselves we have,
And all its fruits we show.

Emphasizing this thought, Wesley preached and left on record three sermons, two of which he captioned The Witness of the Spirit and the third, The Witness of Our Own Spirit. The general theme of these sermons may be said to be: A repentant sinner may be saved and know it.

2. It wrought within its participants a deep purification.

This we have already seen so far as Wesley's own phraseology was concerned. But to those early Methodists this great salvation was more than either a theology or a phraseology; it was an inward sense of cleanness producing an inner soul rapture which found expression in an outburst of song.

How those old-time Methodists sang! The purification of their inner nature and the possession of the divine fullness was their outstanding theme. Here, for instance, are doctrine, petition, conviction, experience, exultation, all rolled into one.

Come, O my God, the promise seal;
This mountain sin remove.
Now in my gasping soul reveal
The virtue of Thy love.

I want Thy life, Thy purity,
Thy righteousness brought in;
I ask, desire, and trust in Thee
To be redeemed from sin.

For this, as taught by Thee, I pray,
And can no longer doubt.
Remove from hence, to sin I say;
Be cast this moment out!

Anger and sloth, desire and pride,
This moment be subdued;
Be cast into the crimson tide
Of my Redeemer's blood.

Saviour, to Thee my soul looks up.
My present Saviour Thou!
In all the confidence of hope
I claim the blessing now.

'Tis done! Thou dost this moment save,
With full salvation bless;
Redemption through Thy blood
I have And spotless love and peace.

Wesley's Journal is one great thrill, as he tells again and again of increasing numbers of witnesses who did not hesitate to affirm the fact that they had put their almighty Saviour to the test and that He had witnessed within their hearts to the complete deliverance from indwelling sin.

3. It manifested itself in a life of victorious love.

No profession of the possession of this grace was satisfactory to Wesley unless the life carried an accompanying evidence of the Spirit's presence and power.

Answering the question as to how the experience may be recognized, he replied:

"By love, joy, peace, always abiding; by Invariable long-suffering, patience, resignation; by gentleness triumphing over all provocation; by goodness, mildness, sweetness, tenderness of spirit; by fidelity, simplicity, godly sincerity; by meekness, calmness, evenness of spirit; by temperance, not only in food and sleep, but in all things natural and spiritual."

To Wesley, this experience of full salvation meant divine love mastering the life, having supreme control within, and from that God-possessed center flowing out in usefulness and blessing to a needy world.