DAY 23

MORNING

PSALMS 110–113

Psalm 110:2 “You will rule in the midst of your enemies.”

Whitefield at Moorfields

While John Wesley was travelling around the country preaching the Gospel, so was George Whitefield, Wesley’s friend and fellow labourer. Every Easter week the London poor gave themselves to fun at Moorfields. Strolling players, bears that were taught to dance using cruelty, clowns and ‘merry-andrews’, and a whole host of conjurers and troupers would converge on the capital. For weeks beforehand in the spring of 1742 George Whitefield had been summoning his courage to “lift up a standard among them in the name of Jesus Christ”.

As he stood up to preach, he felt a tug at his gown and looked down. Elizabeth his wife had her eyes firm upon him. “George,” she called, “play the man for God!” strengthened, encouraged, he felt a surge of compassion for those who would hear. He called out across the fairground: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” Whitefield preached for three days over the Easter weekend.
Sometimes he was silenced for a moment when a rotten egg or tomato hit him in
the mouth. If the contemporary account is read between the lines, one man went so
far as to urinate towards the pulpit. Even Whitefield was shaken at such beastly behaviour. The jeering section of the crowd loved it. Whitefield quickly recovered. His voice boomed above the uproar. “Now,” he cried, “Am I wrong when I say ... that man is half a devil and half a beast?” At that, the jeerers quietened. Whitefield followed up his advantage and said: ... “A half devil, half beast must be born again to become wholly a child of God.” As the dusk fell at Moorfields this great mass evangelist preached and pleaded and prayed and men and women listened in silence and knew that another stood there too, and were born again by the Spirit. George Whitefield had won this battle at Moorfields in London at Easter in 1742. He was just 27 years and four months.156

Prayer

Lord, help not us to shrink back out of fear, but to step up to the task of sharing our faith despite the mockery, the disdain and the resistance. Help us to play the man and woman of God today. Give us your courage and your compassion for the lost. Let the candle of the Gospel blaze across our land once again. Let your troops be willing on your day of battle. Rule and reign in the midst of the enemies of the Gospel today in our land, we pray.

156 Pollock, J Whitefield: the Evangelist, summary, 203–209.

DAY 23

EVENING

PSALMS 114–115

Psalm 114:7 “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord.”

The Results of Wesley’s Gospel Preaching

One of the key features of Wesley’s preaching that emerges from a study
 of his Journal is that although he most often finished with an appeal, he did not have a standard way of finishing his messages. The presence of the Holy Spirit was frequently so strong that there was often just silence as he closed.157 About the meeting at Miller’s barn in Rossendale on the 27 August 1748, he wrote, “When I had finished my discourse, and even pronounced the blessing, not one person offered to go away, but every man woman and child stayed just where they were till I myself went away first.”158 He left the results of his preaching to the Lord. At Birstall he said, “I have declared 
the whole counsel of God.”159 At Grimsby, “I spoke as plainly as possibly I could ... but God only can speak to the heart.”160 Wesley was not concerned with externals. He did not jump to conclusions, expecting optimistically that God had spoken through his preaching.
It was a deep work of God that he looked for, and he expected the Lord to take the initiative in evangelism. He wrote from Ireland, “He can work, even among these dry bones.”161 Another time he said, “I believe God applied his word. Some trembled, others wept. Surely some of these shall know there is balm in Gilead.”162

Wesley was surprised when some “dropped down as dead” or “burst into strong cries
and tears”, or “exceedingly trembled and quaked”. These responses did not happen after Whitefield’s preaching. Although Wesley never encouraged these responses, neither did he discourage them, and so when rumours exaggerated these manifestations, Whitefield was concerned until he found out what really happened after Wesley preached.163

Prayer

Lord, we pray that you would restore the honour of your name in our land and with works of sovereign power, and that you would shake the earth again. Rend the heavens and come down. Let your word not return empty. Let it accomplish that which you have purposed. We long for you to come and presence yourself amongst us. Come, Lord Jesus.

157 Skevington-Wood, The burning heart, 160, 161


158 Wesley. J. Journal, Volume 2, 27 August 1748, 113.

159 Wesley. J. Journal, Volume 4, 4 May 1788, 416.


160 Wesley. J. Journal, Volume 4, 1 July 1788, 416.


161 Wesley. J. Journal, Volume 3, 16 June, 1760.


162 Wesley. J. Journal, Volume 3, 27 June, 1760.


163 Pollock, J. Wesley, The Preacher, 120.