Excerpt from The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M. Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, Vol. 3: Enlarged From Original Mss., With Notes From Unpublished Diaries, Annotations, Maps, and Illustrations

ON a summer evening in 1742, from his father's grave stone, John Wesley saw a congregation that represented a whole countryside 'not only Epworth, but Burnham, Haxey, Owston, Belton, and other Villages round about.' For 'near forty years' the old man whose bones lay under the preacher's feet had laboured here, and had seen little fruit. He too, as curate to his father, had taken some pains among this people, ' and had seemed 'to spend his strength for nought.' But now, he writes, 'the fruit appeared.' The scene was typical. The Isle Of Axholme, nestling in the angle between three great counties, stood for all England. It was the evening and the morning Of a new day and of a great awakening. Out of the semi-parochialism and mysticism of the Religious Societies Wesley had come to his wider parish. Whether he knew it or not, the appeal he now made was national, and was destined to have far-reaching national, and even international, results.

In the present volume Wesley appears as preacher, writer, controversialist, educator. He preaches, Often every day of the week, morning, noon, and night, wherever a crowd can gather or his voice can be heard. His printers are never idle, nor are his literary foes. Books, tracts, letters, hymns, pamphlets pour from the press in a ceaseless stream. But beyond and above all else he is a leader and commander. He compels. The people are charmed by a strange personality. His hand, his eye, the tones Of his voice, cast spells about the wildest. All sorts and conditions hate him savagely or love him passionately. They wonder and fear as at one sent from God; but almost invariably they follow and Obey. The life Of such a man, incessantly travelling, Often traversing swiftly flowing currents Of national movement, appeals to the romancist, for it is rich in startling situations and thrilling episodes. But still more powerfully it appeals to the historian.

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