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Publications
Dr
Herbert McGonigle,
Chairman of the Wesley Fellowship, reviews some
of the Fellowship’s Publications.
Since
it’s beginning in 1985, the Wesley Fellowship
has been very active in promoting the serious
study of Wesleyan history, theology and experience.
John and Charles Wesley were prodigious publishers
of Christian literature in their times. With their
own original writings and their many extracted
and edited works, they published more than four
hundred separate titles. These were made up of
sermons, letters, hymns, journals, Biblical commentaries,
theological treatises, and, in particular, the
50-volume set of the Christian Library. The Wesley
Fellowship cannot yet compare its published outflow
with that of the Wesley brothers but it has been
disseminating Newsletters, Occasional Papers and
more substantial works for the past eighteen years.
What follows is a brief description, in approximate
date order of publication, of most of the Fellowship’s
more important publications.
Paul
Taylor & Howard Mellor (Editors), Travelling
Man: A Tribute to the Life and Ministry of the
Reverend Dr Arthur Skevington Wood. Moorley’s
Print & Publishing, Ilkeston, 1994. ISBN 1
898362 05 X. p/b. pp.126. £1.00.
Dr
Skevington Wood (1917- 1993) was a Methodist minister,
preacher and scholar. For seven years he was Principal
of Cliff College in Derbyshire and he was the
Wesley Fellowship’s first President. This
is the only substantial account of his life, work
and scholarship that has been published to date.
The work is well done and it introduces us to
one of the most significant evangelical voices
in British Methodism in the second half of the
20th century. As well as the interesting and very
readable account of Dr Wood’s life and ministry,
the book also contains two of his important theological
writings. The first is his fine analysis of Martin
Luther’s hermeneutics, ‘Luther’s
Principles of Biblical Interpretation.’
The second is his, ‘Love Excluding
Sin: John Wesley’s Teaching on Sanctification.’
The latter paper was the Wesley Fellowship’s
first publication and a fine example of Dr Wood’s
Biblical and theological scholarship. Running
to some ten thousand words, and with one hundred
and thirty-one references to John Wesley’s
writings and important secondary authorities,
‘Love Excluding Sin’ is, quite simply,
the best and most convincing short exposition
of Wesley’s ‘grand depositum’
that has been written. At the very special low
price of just £1, this biography of Dr Skevington
Wood is a remarkable bargain.
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John
Lawson, The Conversion of the Wesleys: 1738
Reconsidered. Moorley’s Print &
Publishing, Ilkeston, 1987, pp.37. £2.50.
A
former President of the Wesley Fellowship, John
Lawson (1909-2003) was a life-long student of
the writings of John and Charles Wesley and this
brief discussion of what happened to the Wesley
brothers in 1738 is a fine example of his internationally
recognised scholarship. Much has been published
on the evangelical ‘heart-warmings’
experienced by Charles Wesley on May 21st 1738
and by his brother John on May 24th. In what sense
can their experiences be labelled ‘conversions’
or would it be more accurate to describe their
spiritual discoveries during that 1738 Pentecost
season as new certainties of the witness of the
Spirit? Mr Lawson examines the evidence very carefully
and in the process looks at how the events of
1738 influenced the Wesleys’ subsequent
teaching on Christian experience in general and
Christian holiness in particular.
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Herbert
McGonigle, The Arminianism of John Wesley.
Moorley’s Print & Publishing, Ilkeston,
1988. pp.36. £2.50.
Church historians, biographers and theologians
in the last two centuries have labelled John Wesley
an ‘Arminian’ in his doctrine. In
1778 Wesley launched a monthly magazine entitled
the Arminian Magazine, with its emphatic emphasis
on Christ’s atonement for the sins of all
mankind and the possibility of salvation for all.
This study summaries the rise of 16th century
Dutch Arminianism and its spread to England in
the next century. John Wesley is shown to have
imbibed Arminian teaching from his parents, Samuel
and Susanna Wesley and he went on to make it the
vehicle of his impassioned evangelism for half
a century. He removed from it the various humanistic
accretions it had acquired in the seventeen century
and transformed it into what might accurately
be called ‘Wesleyan Arminianism.’
This evaluation of John Wesley’s doctrines
gives special attention to his many anti-Calvinist
publications. This small book has sold more copies
worldwide than almost any other Wesley Fellowship
sponsored publication.
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William
M Greathouse, John Wesley’s Theology
of Christian Perfection. Moorley’s,
Print & Publishing, Ilkeston, 1989. pp.24.
£2.00.
In this short study Dr William Greathouse, a former
General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene,
argues very convincingly that the height and depth
of John Wesley’s often-controverted doctrine
of Christian perfection is the love of God and
neighbour in the heart of the Christian believer.
He demonstrates that the Greek term teleios, translated
‘perfect’ in the King James New Testament,
carries the meanings of ‘full-grown,’
‘mature,’ or ‘adult.’
When employed to describe Christian sanctification
it means ‘heart purity or singleness of
intention; it is blamelessness before God, wholeness
or completeness of devotion to him’ (p.6).
With sixty-one references, mostly to John Wesley's
writings, this is a very valuable contribution
toward understanding what Wesley called Methodism’s
‘grand depositum.’
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Oliver
A Beckerlegge, Charles Wesley: Poet.
Moorley’s Print & Publishing, Ilkeston,
1990. pp.29. £1.00.
The
late Dr Beckerlegge (1913-2003) was an acknowledged
expert in the hymnody of Charles Wesley and this
is a study of Charles as a poet. The author is
not attempting to examine the theology or the
infinite number of scriptural allusions in Charles’
verses or the wide range of Christian experiences
he deals with but concentrates on his gifts as
a great poet. He points out that Charles Wesley’s
9000 poems (a generic term for all his poetical
writings) makes him the most prolific poet in
the English language. With many appropriate illustrations
from the hymns, he discusses metre and rhyme in
Charles’ verse. The second half of this
fine analysis deals with the sources of Charles’
verses, his vocabulary, his literary allusions
and his rhetoric. What a little treasure house
is here of Charles Wesley’s poetry –
and all for the special price of £1!
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Sydney
Martin, John Wesley and The Witness of the
Spirit. Moorley’s Print & Publishing,
Ilkeston, 1990. pp.37. £2.50.
As
well as the doctrine of Christian holiness, John
Wesley’s emphasis on the witness of he Spirit
was a distinctive part of his evangel. He was
convinced that it is the privilege of every believer
to know the Holy Spirit giving witness in his
heart that he is born of God. This was his understanding
of Romans 8:16, ‘The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of
God.’ In Dr Martin’s carefully researched
paper, this doctrine is outlined in the earlier
centuries of the Church. John Wesley’s own
spiritual experiences is analysed with reference
to assurance and then Dr Martin proceeds to show
how Wesley made this doctrine an essential part
of what he often called ‘the great salvation.’
This study examines what John Wesley taught about
the direct witness of the Spirit, the indirect
witness, degrees of assurance and how the Spirit
bears witness to both justification by faith and
sanctification by faith. With its 133 references
to Wesley’s writings and important secondary
sources, this is a fine study of a doctrine that
is not only biblically defensible but is equally
pastorally relevant.
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Barry
Bryant, John Wesley on the Origins of Evil.
Moorley’s Print & Publishing, Ilkeston.
1992. pp.26. £1.00.
From
as early as his Oxford days, John Wesley was deeply
interested in the origin of moral evil. He discussed
this problem in letters to his father, Samuel
Wesley, in 1730. In addition, later, in 1757,
he wrote his single longest theological treatise
on this subject. Dr Bryant examines Wesley’s
interest in man’s free will and how evil
entered the good world that God had made. With
some very important quotations from Wesley’
sermons, Dr Bryant argues that Wesley saw evil
as the direct consequence of man’s abuse
of his God-given liberty. God did not decree the
inevitable fall of Adam but He did create him
capable of making moral choices. Human sinfulness
is not located in the physical body but has its
origins in our rebellion against the will of God.
This is a subject of profound importance for Christian
theology and this Paper is a good summary of John
Wesley’s teaching on it.
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Edward
Houghton, Handmaid of Piety and other papers
on Charles Wesley’s Hymns. Quacks
Books, York, in Association with the Wesley Fellowship.
1992. pp.125. £4.50.
This
is a study of Charles Wesley’s hymns and
it is both a delightful read and very, very informative.
It is delightful for almost every page has quotations
from Charles’ prodigious output of hymns
and the late Mr Houghton knows them well. Here
are extracts from Charles’ best know hymns,
including ‘Arise, my soul, arise,’
‘Spirit of faith come down,’ ‘O
love divine, what hast thou done?’ - and
many more. But there are also citations from many
of Charles’ lesser-known hymns and our delight
in his poetic genius is thereby deepened. In addition,
this book is so very informative. Here are some
of the chapter titles: ‘What we have felt’,
‘Lo! He comes’, ‘In all the
Scriptures’, ‘Wrestling Jacob’,
and ‘To serve the present age’. One
particularly engaging chapter is: ‘With
Wesley through the Church’s year’.
The late Dr Skevington Wood wrote that this book
illustrated Mr Houghton’s ‘effervescent
enthusiasm for his subject’ - and this is
clear on every page. In a study of just 125 pages,
this can be fairly described as the best short
introduction and guide to Charles Wesley’s
hymns that has been published to date.
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Arthur
Skevington Wood, Revelation and Reason:
Wesleyan Responses to Eighteenth-Century Rationalism.
The Wesley Fellowship, Bulkington, Nuneaton, 1992.
ISBN 0951633228. pp.103. £1.50.
This
book is the published form of the series of Didsbury
Lectures given by A. Skevington Wood in 1987,
a series that began at the Nazarene Theological
College in Manchester in 1979 and has attracted
Biblical scholars, theologians and Church historians
of international reputation. Dr Wood carefully
researches a part of early Methodist apologetic
theology that has not received very much attention.
John Wesley made a trenchant reply to the writings
of the most eminent Socinian of his day, Dr John
Taylor. The term ‘Socinian’ refers
to what is now called ‘Unitarian’,
the teaching that denies the deity of Christ,
and goes on to deny the personality of the Holy
Spirit and His work in regeneration. Wesley’s
1757 reply to Taylor, entitled The Doctrine of
Original Sin according to Scripture, Reason and
Experience, was the longest treatise he ever wrote.
Dr Wood carefully discusses the origins of this
debate and outlines Wesley’s long reply.
In the second half of the book he deals with how
two other early Methodists, John Fletcher and
Joseph Benson, supported Wesley by writing against
the teachings of other later exponents of Unitarianism,
notably Dr Joseph Priestly. With its 322 references,
this is a fine example of Dr Skevington Wood’s
biblical and historical scholarship. At £1.50
to call this notable treatise a bargain is a gross
understatement!
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Charles
Goodwin, Cries of Anguish – Shouts
of Praise: The Development of Wesleyan Revivalism
1739-1818. Originally published by the
author, a Wesley Fellowship member, as Merlin
Methodist Monograph, No 2, at Cannock, Staffordshire,
1994; Republished, with permission, by the Wesley
Fellowship, Ilkeston, 1999. pp.62. £3.50.
This
fascinating study of revivalism in early Methodism
begins in 1739. In that year John Wesley read
Jonathan Edwards’ account of the revival
then in progress in New England in America and
commented, ‘This is the Lord’s doing
and it is marvellous in our eyes.’ Very
soon afterwards there were similar signs of the
Spirit at work through the preaching of John and
Charles Wesley. Dr Goodwin argues convincingly
that John Wesley’s revival ministry began
in London, and the surrounding areas, late in
1738, some months before his open-air preaching
began in Bristol on April 2nd, 1739. The progress
of the revival is traced for the next half century,
carried on by John Wesley and his many itinerant
preachers. Some attention is also given to the
rise of Primitive Methodism in Staffordshire in
1807, directly the result of revival praying and
preaching and the particular revival ethos of
‘Camp-meetings.’ As well as the prominence
of soul-saving preaching in revival, this evaluation
also demonstrates the place and power of revival
praying in any great work of the Spirit. This
analysis finishes in 1818, the year that marked
the death of William Bramwell, arguably the last
of the great Wesleyan revivalists. Dr Goodwin
writes a very practical and pressing epilogue
to his engaging study of Wesleyan Revivalism with
these telling words: ‘…the one clear
lesson that does emerge [from this study] is that,
ideally, revivalism should be the work of the
whole church – pastors and people, preaching
and praying, working in partnership for the salvation
of sinners.’
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Herbert
McGonigle, John Wesley and the Moravians.
The Wesley Fellowship in association with Moorley’s
Print & Publishing, Ilkeston, 1993. pp.32.
ISBN 0 86071 422 5. £2.25.
John
and Charles Wesley first encountered the Moravians
on their voyage to Georgia in America in 1735.
The Moravians were German evangelicals from Herrnhut,
Saxony in Germany where their founder was Count
Ludwig von Zinzendorf. The Moravians and the Wesleys
were both dedicated to missionary work in Georgia
and, for the next two years, John Wesley was increasingly
impressed with the character and conduct of the
Moravians. Back in England, it was another Moravian,
Peter Bohler, who instructed the Wesley brothers
in the way of saving faith, an instruction that
led directly to their evangelical ‘heart
warmings’ in May 1738. Although John Wesley
later parted company with the Moravians because
of what he believed to be the antinomian consequences
of some of their teachings, he never lost his
affection for the people who first directed him
in the way of salvation. This paper carefully
traces the relationship between Wesley and his
early mentors and examines, in particular, the
theological reasons for the split between them
in the early 1740s. Although much longer studies
of the Moravians have been published, this Paper
summaries the essential facts and evaluates the
doctrinal difference between Moravianism and Methodism.
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William
Parkes, The Arminian Methodists. The Derby
Faith: A Wesleyan Aberration in Pursuit of Revivalism
and Holiness. Merlin Monograph, Cannock,
Staffordshire, 1995, reprinted and published by
The Wesley Fellowship, [1999]. pp.53. £3.50.
This
short-lived revivalist movement originated in
a doctrinal split that occurred on the Derby Wesleyan
Methodist circuit in 1832, and for this reason
its adherents were often called the ‘Derby
Faith Folk.’ Although these Arminian Methodists
claimed to be faithfully following John Wesley’s
teaching on entire sanctification, in fact they
departed from Wesley’s strong emphasis on
salvation by repentance and faith. They turned
saving faith into merely believing that Christ
died for sinners and their doctrine of human response
was semi-Pelagian. Five years after the movement’s
beginning, it broke up and most of its 2000 members
joined the Wesleyan Methodist Association. Dr
William Parkes, co-founder of the Wesley Fellowship,
was a recognised expert in the field of 19th century
British Methodism and he knew more about the Arminian
Methodists than any other living scholar. This
book is the only substantial well-researched account
of the ‘Derby Faith’ in print.
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Herbert
McGonigle, John Wesley’s Doctrine
of Prevenient Grace. Moorley’s Print
& Publishing in collaboration with the Wesley
Fellowship, Ilkeston, 1995. pp.31. ISBN 0 95163
324 4. £2.50.
This
paper investigates how John Wesley attempted to
harmonise his near-Augustinian doctrine of original
sin and his doctrine of Christ’s universal
atonement for sin. While most Augustinians had
combined their doctrine of sin with a doctrine
of absolute predestination, Wesley argued for
a doctrine of prevenient grace. He meant by this
that God’s free grace ‘prevents’
or ‘goes before’ any human response
to the gospel. It is God’s free grace that
awakens the sinner, that produces in him conviction
of sin, that opens his understanding to the truths
of the gospel, and enables him to respond to Christ
with repentance and saving faith. This prevenient
grace is the ‘light that enlightens everyone
coming into the world;’ (John 1:9); in the
words of Paul it is God’s ‘free gift’
(Romans 5:15, 16, 18). Prevenient grace is not
saving grace, so John Wesley was not a universalist
but he believed passionately that all mankind
are blessed with this grace, so not all accept
it or respond to it. While holding to a very orthodox
doctrine of original sin, John Wesley proclaimed
prevenient grace in a way that enabled him logically
to steer clear both of a Pelagian doctrine of
human ability and a rigid doctrine of predestination.
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Paul
Taylor (Editor) Wesley Pieces: Conference
and Other Papers 1995. The Wesley Fellowship
with Moorley’s Print & Publishing, Ilkeston,
1996. A4 format, pp.56. ISBN 0951 16332 5 2. £2.00.
The
four main Papers in this collection were originally
presented as lectures at the Wesley Fellowship
Residential Conference held in Derbyshire, at
Cliff College, in 1995. First, Dr William Parkes
outlines the life and work of Elizabeth Ann Evans,
a woman preacher who, with her husband, left the
Wesleyan Methodists in 1832 to join the Arminian
Methodists. Her ministry was greatly blessed of
God in the conversion of sinners and in leading
believers into full salvation. Elizabeth Evans
was the woman who ‘George Eliot’ used
for her character ‘Dinah Morris’ in
her book, Adam Bede. The second Paper is Col.
David Guy’s ‘The Influence of John
Wesley on William and Catherine Booth.’
The parallels between John Wesley’s ‘Methodism’
and the Booths’ ‘Salvation Army’
are striking, especially the latter’s enthusiastic
attachment to Wesley’s doctrine of Christian
holiness. But there are important differences
as well, especially the Salvation Army’s
attitude to the sacraments. In the third Paper,
Dr Stephen Hatcher examines ‘The Primitive
Methodist Experience of Holiness.’ In the
early decades of Primitive Methodism, it followed
the lead set by its founder William Clowes who
fervently taught and disseminated the Wesleyan
interpretation of entire sanctification. Dr Hatcher
offers some compelling evidence of why this emphasis
began to wane in Primitive Methodism in the closing
decades of the 19th century. In the fourth Paper,
Dr John Andrews writes on ‘John Wesley and
the Translation of German Hymns.’ A noted
expert in hymnody, especially of German translations
into English, Dr Andrews evaluates John Wesley’s
skills as a translator and illustrates his very
informative paper with examples. These include,
‘Jesus, Thy boundless love to me’,
‘Now I have found the ground wherein’,
‘Thou hidden love of God, whose height’,
‘Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness’,
and many more. For good measure, Wesley Pieces
also includes the text of two sermons preached
at the Conference - as well as two short articles,
on ‘Wesleyan Arminianism’ and ‘The
Love Feast.’ And all of this is on Special
Offer at just £2!
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Peter Gentry, Francis
Asbury – the Wesley of America. Moorley’s
Print & Publishing, Ilkeston, 1996. pp.15.
ISBN 0 86071 480 2. £1.00.
Here
is a good introduction to the man who blazed a
trail of spiritual fire and revival on the American
frontiers from his arrival there in 1771 until
his death in 1816 at the age of 70. In 45 years
of non-stop itinerant preaching, this Birmingham-born
Methodist preacher is estimated to have preached
16,500 sermons, ridden almost 300,000 miles on
horse back, presided over 224 Methodist Conferences
in America and ordained 4000 preachers. These
pages introduce us to a dedicated Methodist preacher,
described by an earlier biographer as ‘the
apostle whose only home was the saddle and his
parish the continent.’
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Charles
Goodwin, The Methodist Pentecost: The Wesleyan
Holiness Revival 1758-1763. Merlin Methodist
Monograph No.4. Moorley’s Print & Publishing
in Association with the Wesley Fellowship, Ilkeston,
1996. pp.38. ISBN 0 951633 26 0 £2.50.
During
the years of John Wesley’s itinerant preaching,
from 1739 until his death in 1791, there were
many local ‘revivals.’ The most significant
of these began in Otley in Yorkshire in February
1760 when many Christians sought and found the
blessing of full salvation. This revival spirit
spread to many places and was characterised not
only by large numbers of sinners being converted
but also by many Christians claiming the blessing
of full salvation. Dr Goodwin discusses the origin
and course of the revival, the reasons for its
success and gives particular attention to the
nature and claims made for the blessing of entire
sanctification. A truly heart-warming account
of five years of great blessing and increase in
early Methodism.
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Paul
Taylor (Editor) Wesleyan Perspectives: Papers
Presented to The Wesley Fellowship in 1998.
Moorley’s Print & Publishing in association
with the Wesley Fellowship, Ilkeston, 1998. A4
format, pp.34. ISBN 0 9516332 9 5. £3.00.
In
the first of these three Papers, Trevor Staniforth
deals with ‘John Wesley’s Puritan
Roots.’ The Wesley home in Epworth where
both John and Charles were born was shaped by
the two great streams of English Church life that
coalesced there, Anglicanism and Puritanism. This
paper concentrates on the Puritan influence and
highlights, among other things, that John Wesley’s
genius for organising the fruits of the Methodist
Revival can be traced to a Puritan understanding
of the Christian life and the means of grace.
In the second paper John Dolan discusses ‘The
Origins and Early Characteristics of the Independent
Methodist Movement’. This branch of the
Methodist movement began in Warrington in Lancashire
in 1796 and was essentially a movement of lay
preachers who did not believe in ministerial ordination
or a paid ministry. In its early days the Movement
was also known by the names of ‘Free Gospel
Church’, ‘Christian Revivalists’,
‘Gospel Pilgrims’ and ‘Quaker
Methodists’. Mr Dolan, who (in 2004) is
in the process of completing a PhD thesis on Independent
Methodism, is more informed about this movement
than any contemporary scholar and this is a very
readable and succinct account of these Independents.
The third Paper is Brian Barber’s ‘Revival
Seeds’, in which he examines some of the
characteristics of the Methodist Revival in John
Wesley’s time. He notes that, in addition
to Wesley’s constant itinerant preaching,
he also devoted much time and labour to building
up the movement at local level. The part played
by Charles Wesley’s inspirational hymns
is also discussed. These Perspectives are readable,
informative and heart-warming.
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Ian
Randall, Pathway of Power. Moorley’s
Print & Publishing, Ilkeston, 1999. pp.28.
ISBN 0 9516332 8 7 £2.50.
The
sub-title of this study summarises its area of
research: ‘Keswick and the Reshaping of
Wesleyan Holiness 1875-1905.’ In the latter
part of the 19th century in England, there was
a revival of interest in, and concern for, holy
living. This movement was occasioned by the successful
ministry in Britain if a number of American Holiness
preachers, including Mrs Phoebe Palmer, the Revd
William Boardman, and, in particular Robert Pearsall
Smith and his wife, Hanna Whitall Smith. Conferences
for ‘the deepening of spiritual life’
were convened and out of these gatherings the
Keswick Convention was organised in 1875. From
its very beginning, ‘Keswick’ theology
was suspicious of the Wesleyan emphasis on entire
sanctification being obtainable in this life.
Instead it developed a doctrine of the counteraction
of sin in the Christian’s heart by the indwelling
Spirit. Dr Randall carefully traces the origin
and development of the Keswick Convention and
its ‘Higher Life’ teaching. He compares
it with Wesleyan theology and some of the leading
protagonists on both sides are introduced and
their teachings examined. This account is scholarly,
fair, clearly written and very informative.
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Paul
Smith, John Wesley: Preacher of the Gospel.
The Wesley Fellowship, Shearsby, Leicestershire,
2000. pp.20. ISBN 0 9537473 0 1. £2.00.
John
Wesley preached the gospel for more than sixty
years - and fifty of those years were spent in
itinerant ministry. This study looks at Wesley’s
preaching career, his methods of study, the content
of his sermons, and some eyewitness accounts of
those who heard him preach. Wesley preached daily
for half-a-century across the Great Britain and
Ireland and his preaching was plain, pointed,
practical, and designed to bring his hearers to
repentance and faith. By contrast, his published
sermons were intended for those already Christians
and their purpose was to build believers up in
faith and holiness. This important distinction
between John Wesley’s oral preaching and
the style and content of the published sermons
must be kept in mind when we read the latter.
Mr Smith has done his research in Wesley’s
Journal and Sermons with relish and produced a
very informative summary of his preaching ministry.
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Deirdre
Brower, Susanna Wesley: Practical Theologian.
The Wesley Fellowship, Shearsby, Leicestershire,
2001. ISBN 0 9537473 1 X. pp.19. £2.00.
Biographers
of John Wesley have long reminded us that in order
to understand him we must first understand his
mother Susanna. Deirdre Brower argues that Susanna
was primarily concerned about the relationship
between theological doctrines and everyday practical
living. After summarising her precocious intellectual
development as a daughter of the celebrated Puritan
preacher, Dr Samuel Annesley, this study then
examines the main theological motifs in Susanna’s
thinking. These are the love of God, the nature
of God, human nature, sanctification, and practical
theology. The conclusion is that Susanna Wesley’s
theology was grounded in Scripture and always
concerned with practical living. Perhaps it is
not surprising that this very ‘practical
theologian’ had a son John who spent a long
life applying the truths of the Bible to help
people to find God’s grace and salvation
and work it out in daily life.
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Paul
Taylor (Editor) Wesley Papers: Papers presented
to The Wesley Fellowship Conference in 2000.
The Wesley Fellowship in Association with Moorley’s
Print & Publishing, Ilkeston, 2002. pp.98.
ISBN 0 9537473 0 1. £11.50.
This
publication is made up of four Papers delivered
at the Wesley Fellowship Residential Conference
held at Cliff College, Derbyshire, in October
2000. The first Paper, ‘Offending in Many
Things’ by Dr John Colwell, a lecturer at
Spurgeon’s College in London, and is a fascinating
comparison of the teaching of John Wesley and
Thomas Aquinas on the measure to which the Christian
may love God and his neighbour with all his heart
in this life. This ‘perfection of love’
is what John Wesley meant by Christian perfection
and this Paper throws fresh light and provides
very helpful insights on this vital topic. The
second Paper is by William Graham, Editor of The
Wesley Fellowship Quarterly, who writes on ‘Pupils
in the Gospel: The Education of John Wesley’s
Preachers.’ This splendid Paper is, on its
own, well worth the price of the whole book! It
reminds us that John Wesley was not only devoted
to preaching the gospel for half a century but
he was equally devoted to helping his travelling
preachers to get the best education they could.
None of them had had John Wesley's background
of learning and scholarship, begun in his Epworth
rectory home, continued at Charterhouse School,
developed by fifteen years at Oxford University
as both student and tutor, and perfected by a
lifetime of reading and study. Yet Wesley believed
these men should be given every opportunity to
improve their learning and, among other helps,
he prepared a 50 volume Christian Library to assist
them! Mr Graham’s Paper is a veritable storehouse
of information about John Wesley and his preachers
and his tightly packed 36 pages will tell you
so much! And then, in addition, there are 272
Endnotes, which run to another 20 pages! John
Wesley would have approved – this Paper
will certainly add a wealth of information on
this subject to all who take time to study carefully
both the text and the Endnotes. The fourth Paper,
by Geoffrey Fewkes, is entitled, ‘John Wesley
and Reader Harris: Stages in Salvation’,
and it carefully compares the teaching of Reader
Harris (1847-1909), the founder of the Pentecostal
League of Prayer with that of John Wesley. The
heart of the Paper is the comparison between Harris’
understanding of the stages of salvation as preliminary,
partial, perfect and progressive, and Wesley’s
teaching on how prevenient grace leads to convincing
grace and that, in turn, to salvation, understood
as regeneration and sanctification. The third
Paper, by the late Dr William Parkes, co-founder
of the Wesley Fellowship, is entitled, ‘Lorenzo
Dow: The Eccentric Cosmopolite.’ Dow (1777-1834)
was an American Methodist camp-meeting preacher
whom God used in remarkable ways in revival services.
His ministry in Staffordshire in 1807 helped towards
the rise and formation of Primitive Methodism.
Eccentric in his dress and preaching style, yet
Dow had an undoubted anointing from the Lord and
his ministry was blessed to thousands. But sadly
that all changed. In later life he began to dabble
in financial ventures and was involved in a number
of litigations. Then, to make matters worse, the
one-time Spirit-filled preacher joined the Masonic
Order. He drifted away from the gospel, lost his
anointing and became a Deist in his religious
convictions. At his funeral, he was buried with
Masonic rites and the inscription on his gravestone
makes it clear that Free Masonry had replaced
Christ’s gospel in his convictions. This
Paper is not only very informative but very salutary
and a solemn warning to every Christian, and especially
to every preacher. In his latter years, Dow ignored
Paul’s warning that the servant of God should
not entangle himself with worldly affairs (2 Tim.
2:4). Dr Parkes’ carefully researched pages
give a moving account of Lorenzo Dow’s sad
journey; a journey from the heights of spiritual
power and effectiveness to the depths of Christless
Deism and Masonic darkness. The fourth Paper,
by Geoffrey Fewkes, is entitled, ‘John Wesley
and Reader Harris: Stages in Salvation’,
and it carefully compares the teaching of Reader
Harris (1847-1909), the founder of the Pentecostal
League of Prayer with that of John Wesley. The
heart of the Paper is the comparison between Harris’
understanding of the stages of salvation as preliminary,
partial, perfect and progressive, and Wesley’s
teaching on how prevenient grace leads to convincing
grace and that, in turn, to salvation, understood
as regeneration and sanctification. With its 98
pages and hundreds of references and footnotes,
Wesley Papers is enlightening reading and a very
fine addition to the shelves of Wesley scholarship.
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John
M. Haley John Wesley: The Means of Grace
and the Holy Life Today. The Wesley Fellowship,
Shearsby, Leicestershire, 2003. ISBN 0 9837473
2 8. pp.28. £3.00.
This
fine paper was first presented to, and well received
by, the members of the Wesley Fellowship Conference
held at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick,
Derbyshire, in October 2003. It presents a challenge
for all Christians interested in scriptural holiness
‘to consider how’, three hundred years
after his birth, ‘John Wesley’s means
of grace can be faithfully used to encourage Christians
towards living the holy life today’. The
author, the Revd Dr John Haley, is a member of
the Wesley Fellowship, a Minister in the Plymouth
& Devonport Methodist Circuit, and an Honorary
Research Fellow at the Centre for Ministry Studies
at the University of Wales, Bangor, UK.
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John
Wood The Peculiar People: A Nineteenth Century
Methodist Off-Shoot in Essex. The Wesley
Fellowship, Shearsby, Leicestershire, [in press]
2004. ISBN 0953774733 6. pp.28. £3.00.
This
most interesting and well-researched paper describes
the early history and later development of the
‘Peculiar People’, a comparatively
little-known nineteenth century Methodist offshoot
that began in rural Essex. It was first presented
to the regular Wesley Fellowship meeting held
at Zion Church of the Nazarene, Handsworth, Birmingham,
in October 2003. The author, the Revd John Wood,
is a retired Baptist pastor, school teacher, and
Bible College Tutor – is, without doubt,
the world’s most knowledgeable person on
the subject both from his personal experience
in the movement as a child and later as a result
of his on-going investigative research into the
surviving literature on the subject.
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The
Wesley Fellowship also has an extensive range
of audio cassette tapes for sale of most of the
printed papers listed above – and of many
other papers that have never been printed and
published. These are live recordings made on occasions
when they were first presented to meetings of
the Fellowship. A full list is available on request
to the Wesley Fellowship Book Sales Officer (details
below).
All these publications – and numerous audio
cassette tape recordings – are usually available
for sale at regular Wesley Fellowship meetings.
They are also obtainable for sale by post from
the Wesley Fellowship’s Book Sales Officer,
Revd Tony Tamburello, 13 Charles Street, Colne,
Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, BB8 0LY.
E-mail: mailto:tonytamb@aol.com
Telephone/Fax (U.K.): 01282-859014.
Telephone/Fax (International): +44 1282 859014.
Please
Note: Postage and packing is EXTRA on all these
publications. All cheques and International Money
Orders must be in pounds sterling and made payable
to the ‘Wesley Fellowship’.
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