Introduction

Two bishops in the Church of England, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, were burnt at the stake as martyrs for their faith in 1555. John Foxe records Latimer’s prayers in the Tower of London while he waited for his execution. He prayed, “‘that God of his mercy would restore his Gospel
to England ONCE AGAIN”; and these words ‘once again’ he did so beat into the ears of the Lord God, as though he had seen God before him, and spoken to him face to face.”1 Just under two centuries later, the Lord moved powerfully, bringing revival to England through John Wesley and the Methodist awakening. One biographer saw John Wesley’s life as a direct answer to that prayer of Hugh Latimer in the Tower of London. Once again the Gospel was restored to our land.

Ridley’s words to Latimer as they were being burnt at the stake, on 16th October 1555, had been “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light
such a candle, by God’s grace in England, as
 I trust shall never be put out.”2 One historian suggests that John Wesley’s life in the 18th century was like a blazing fire, as he travelled around the country on horseback proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.3

As a boy, John Wesley had nearly died in a fire at his father’s rectory in Epworth. He referred to himself in the words of scripture as “a brand plucked out of the fire”(Zechariah 3:2). Many years later John Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed”4 at a quarter to 
nine at Aldersgate on 24th May 1738, when he heard Luther’s preface to Romans being read aloud. Wesley’s evangelistic zeal then led him to travel on horseback a quarter of a million miles, and the Gospel was preached in England once again. Skevington-wood says, “The symbolism of fire links the upper room in Aldersgate street with the blazing parsonage at Epworth. The brand plucked from the burning had now found his destiny. Henceforth the flame within would carry him throughout the land to ignite the tinder of revival.”5

“Guarding the holy fire; that was what 
he was doing,” writes Prof Bonamy Dobree. “He was himself a flame going up and down the land, lighting such candles as by God’s grace would never be put out; and as one reads [Wesley’s] colossal journal one gets the impression of this flame, never waning, never smoky, darting from point to point, lighting up the whole kingdom, till in due course it burnt out the body it inhabited.”6

Over the next 30 days, let us remind the Lord, of the prayer of Latimer when he was in the Tower of London.

•In your mercy, Lord, restore your Gospel to England once again. Latimer and Ridley followed you to a martyr’s death. Stir yourself to act, Lord! Remember Latimer and Ridley!
Let the candle of your Gospel burn brightly across this land ONCE AGAIN!

1 Foxe, J. Book of Martyrs, Whitaker, 278.

2 Foxe, Martyrs, 309.

3 Dobree, J. Wesley. 96–97, quoted in Skevington-Wood, The burning heart, 68.


4 Wesley, J. The Complete Works of John Wesley, Journal, Volume 1, 24th May 1738, 103.

5 Skevington-Wood, A. The burning heart. John Wesley: Evangelist, 67.


6 Dobree, J. Wesley. 96–97, quoted in Skevington-Wood, The burning heart, 68.

7 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc.i.html