DAY 2

MORNING

PSALMS 9–11

Psalm 9:13 “Lift me up from the gates of death.”

A Brand Plucked Out of the Fire

It was on the night of 9th February 1709 that the Epworth Rectory was destroyed by fire. Henry Perlee Parker painted a picture of the dramatic scene of John Wesley’s rescue. The old buildings were alight and young John Wesley was trapped inside, looking through the curtains, and a brave villager, balanced on another villager’s shoulders, pulled him out of the building seconds before the roof caved in.18 Samuel Wesley invited all who were present to pray: “Come, neighbours. Let us give thanks to God. He has given me all my eight children. Let the house go, I am rich enough.”19 Although Wesley was very young (he had not yet reached six years of age), this event left a big impression on his memory. He believed that God had spared him for a purpose. He said of himself that he was “a brand plucked out of the fire”. (Zechariah 3:2)

John Wesley would regularly observe the anniversary of that night. On one occasion he said it was “the strongest impression I had till I was 23 or 24 years old”. It is significant, too, that after Wesley was converted, he saw that he was spiritually “a brand plucked from the fire”. His rescue at Epworth was preparation for the very specific mission that the Lord had for his life. Later in his life when he was sitting for a portrait, he chose to be painted with a house in flames in the background, with the words beneath, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”20

The overriding emphasis throughout Wesley’s life became ‘personal salvation’.
He saw that personal salvation was what Britain needed, and many historians
 believe that Wesley saved the whole English nation from revolution. Many European nations underwent terrible suffering during revolutions in the 18th and 19th centuries, but England did not. Not only did a third of the nation become Methodist some years after Wesley’s death, and did thousands respond 
to the message of personal salvation, but the national attitude and character of the nation was also changed fundamentally. Towards the end of his life he summarised his vision with these words: “The church has nothing to do but save souls; therefore spend and be spent in this work.”21

Prayer

Lord, you lifted up John Wesley from the gates of death, as a brand plucked from the fire. You had mercy on him, and you had mercy on our nation. Lord, have mercy on us today. You are our God — you came to seek and save the lost. Come and seek and save us today, Jesus. Without you sovereignly intervening we are destined for destruction. Lord, have mercy on us and our nation, and lift us up from the gates of death today.

18 Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart, 29.


19 Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart, 29.


20 Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart, 29, 30.


21 Minutes of Conference, 29 June 1744, revised 1745.

DAY 2 EVENING PSALMS 12–14

Psalm 12:1 “Help, Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.”

A Period of Moral Disorder

The moral standards in England before the Methodist revival began in 1738 were very low. Sir Robert Walpole, the prime Minister from 1722–1742, lived in an adulterous relationship with Maria Skellett, “who lived in his house the old Lodge at Richmond park.”22

Alcohol and gambling were the popular pastimes of this time. Gin-drinking had reached almost epidemic proportions
and violent crime had become so bad and hangings so frequent that “Dr. Johnson ironically expressed his fear that the navy might run short of ropes.”23 Harold Nicolson describes England in the first part of the 18th century as being “in a period of moral disorder.”24 The low moral standards had resulted from a prevalent indifference to the Christian faith. Thomas Secker, the Bishop of Oxford, said, “an open and professed disregard of religion is become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the distinguishing character of the age.”25 Goldsmith said that sermons from
 the pulpit were “generally dry, methodical and unaffecting; delivered with the most insipid calmness, so that should the peaceful preacher lift his head over the cushion, he might discover his audience, instead of being awakened to remorse, actually sleeping over his mechanical and laboured composition.”26

Today we, too, are in a period of moral disorder. Every day in Britain at least
 507 babies are aborted, 190 women are 
raped, there are 322 divorces and 85 
teenage pregnancies.27 Drug addiction and alcoholism are rampant and pornography is
 a multibillion-pound industry which some have described as a plague among our young people. As a nation we have drifted a very long way from our strong Christian heritage. In a recent newspaper article28 it was reported that the texts that once every school pupil knew by heart such as the Lord’s prayer and Ten Commandments are so unfamiliar that the Church of England is introducing a course to teach the basic tenets of Christianity, ‘The pilgrim Course’29. Britain needs waking up again.

Lord, as a nation we have abandoned our Christian heritage. Wake us up! You moved powerfully in the 18th century through Wesley attacking those same evils of licence and moral decay, through the preaching of repentance and conversion. Help us today, Lord, for the godly are no more and the faithful have vanished from among men. Rebuke the evils of our day, Lord. Awake the church out of its lethargy. Send another revival to our nation, Lord. Breathe on us again, we pray!

22 Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart, 9.


23 Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart,11.


24 Nicolson,H. The Age of Reason, 1700–1789, 369, Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart, 9.


25 B. Porteus and G. Stinton, The works of Thomas Secker, Vol 5. 292. Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart,12.

26 Friedman, A The collected works of Oliver Goldsmith. Vol 3, 151, Skevington-Wood, The Burning Heart,12.

27 www.gov.uk/ government Department of Health abortion statistics, 2012.
28 Daily Telegraph, 2nd October 2013.


29 www.pilgrimcourse.org/the-course