"About three in the morning (January 2nd), as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried with exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground"

So writes John Wesley concerning a gathering of believers in a house in Fetter Lane, London, in the year 1739.

It was a very significant gathering, not only with regards to the experience, but also with regards to the spiritual equipment, which it provided for those assembled. This was the year that the great Methodists, Wesley and Whitefield were to launch out on their careers of open-air preaching, or "field preaching" as it was then called. Banned from almost every pulpit in England, they had little alternative but to turn to the open fields and to those who would receive their message.

Here is George Whitefield, and he has just been told in the town of Kingswood that he may only preach if he undertakes not to preach on the "new birth". He, therefore, turns to the open fields, to the coal miners just coming off duty. What a sight it must have been!

"I preached", he says, "on the Saviour's words to Nicodemus: 'Ye must be born again', and the people heard me gladly. Having no righteousness of their own to renounce, they were delighted to hear of One who came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by the tears which streamed plentifully down their black cheeks as they came fresh from the coal pit. Hundreds and hundreds of them were soon brought under deep conviction, which happily ended in sound and thorough conversions. The change was visible to all".

This was something unheard of. Here were ordained ministers of the Church of England, cultured and eloquent, and yet, but with a single message for rich and poor alike,

"Ye must be born again"

Their fame spread, and with it, revival of true heart-religion. The whole country felt the impact, and it is a fact of history that England was saved from revolution such as smote France primarily through the religious revival which swept the country in the wake of the ringing affirmations of the Wesleys and Whitefield, and others. One writer of the Methodist movement has well called their work "a herculean work", and he sees the preparation for it on that January morning long ago …"It was a glorious preparation", he says of it, "for the herculean work on which Whitefield and the Wesleys were about to enter. No wonder that the year thus begun should be the most remarkable in Methodistic history".

"Marvel not that I said unto thee: Ye must be born again".

---

This Page Title – This Month Long Ago - January 2nd 1739 The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 40 – placed on line January 2003 Wicket Gate contact address – Mr Cliff Westcombe cw@wicketgate.co.uk If you wish to be notified when each new edition goes on line please send an e-mail to the above address Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk Labelled with ICRA