04. THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REVIVAL
THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REVIVAL MARCH 7, 1738, TO NOVEMBER 14, 1741 PRINCIPAL EVENTS
1738 | Feb. 1 | John Wesley lands at Deal. |
May 21 | Charles Wesley’ s evangelical conversion. | |
May 24 | John Wesley’s evangelical conversion. | |
June 13 | Visits the Moravian Church. | |
1739 | May 2 | Field-preaching in Bristol. |
Nov. 11 | Preaches in the Foundry. | |
1740 | July 20 | Withdraws from Fetter Lane. |
No letters in the whole series of Wesley’s correspondence are more significant than these. They begin with the year of his evangelical conversion and his visit to the Motarian Settlement at Herrnhut. They show how zealously he worked among the Religious Societies in London, at Oxford, and Bristol; they describe his first triumphs as a field-preacher in England. Here the letters are extraordinarily full. They were written to James Hutton, to be read in the little Society which met in Fetter Lane, and help us to realize how the news of the Great Awakening stirred the hearts of Wesley’s friends in London. We see how the Wesleys became estranged from the Moravians, and how Calvinism made a breach between them and George Whitefield. Another pilot was dropped by the outspoken letters to William Law. The letters to Samuel Wesley are quite as outspoken, and show how the younger brother was feeling his feet as a theologian. These years have unique importance in the history of the Great Revival.