You made me bold and stout hearted Psalm 138:3

DAY 28 MORNING PSALM 132 -135

DAY 28 EVENING PSALM 136-138

In Wesley’s latter years the West Country was proof of the change which had been wrought by Methodism. ‘On one visit in his old age he had attended a service in Exeter Cathedral. The Bishop of Exeter, invited him to dinner at the palace where a former Bishop of Exeter had written violent pamphlets against Wesley. As they parted the bishop said “Mr Wesley, I hope I may sit at your feet in the kingdom of heaven.”

On Wesley’s last visit to Cornwall when he was 86, in August, he came again to Falmouth, recalling: “the last time I was here, about forty years ago, I was taken prisoner by an immense mob, gaping and roaring like lions; but how is the tide turned. High and low now lined the street from one end of the town to the other, out of stark love and kindness, gaping and staring as if the king were going by. In the evening I preached on the smooth top of the hill, at a small distance for the sea to the largest congregation I have ever seen in Cornwall, except in or near Redruth… God moved wonderfully on the hearts of the people, who all seemed to know the day of their visitation.”

At Port Isaac the whole town seemed to be present. "How changed since the last time” when the man who had invited him ,dared not ask him to stay lest the mob pull down the house. As Wesley left the county on Friday August 28th, 1789, he commented, “So there is a fair prospect in Cornwall, from Launceston to Land’s End.” ‘

Wesley preached in the open-air for the last time aged 87 beneath an ash tree in the churchyard of Rye in Kent. His feeble voice was barely audible, but his reverend countenance, especially his long white locks, formed a picture never to be forgotten.’

• We pray for the turning of the tide in Britain. We pray that the Gospel would be restored to our land, ONCE AGAIN. Raise up bold and stout-hearted evangelists to preach the Gospel in the highways and byways, today. We pray for another day of visitation from you Lord - a ‘planting of the Lord for the display of your splendour.'Radically transform the morality of nation from the grassroots up and change the spiritual landscape beyond recognition through the powerful proclamation of your word with signs following.

REFERENCES

Pollock, J. Wesley:the Preacher, Kingsway, 255-257