John Wesley

SELF-RIGHTEOUS DANDY
TO
DYNAMO ON HORSEBACK

Young Wesley, five feet four inches and 120 pounds, was a pointy-nosed Oxford priss flaunting ruffled shirts and self-righteous superiority. He sought holiness. He had not one ounce of tact. Who was good enough for him?

Wesley’s turbulent years in colonial America pastoring colonists fresh from debtors prison did much to change the Oxford dandy into a man of the people. And it was there he realized his haughty quest for holiness had failed.

Just months after returning to England his faith became real and fearless. One year later - 1739 - he founded the Methodist societies solely to bring Christ to commoners befuddled by High Church jargon and elitism.

Fifty years later Methodists numbered in many thousands in England and America. Wesley had traveled 200,000 miles on sea and land, ridden horses no less than 4000 miles every year. He had delivered 40,000 sermons. He endured vicious mobs, angry authorities and his volatile brother Charles. His one glaring failure: his relations with women were a lifelong disaster.

In the 21st century more than 70 million members in over 130 countries belong to the Methodist community,