He Finished Well

He Finished Well

When a man dies, what he leaves behind bears testimony to who he was.

IN 1791 John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist revival, was eighty-seven years old with failing health. He hadn’t preached in the open air, as he loved to do, for some months.

On Wednesday, February 23, 1791, Wesley responded to the request of a wealthy London merchant named Belson, whom he hardly knew, to counsel him after his wife’s death. The sixteen miles from Wesley’s house in London to Belson’s home in the village of Leatherhead was an arduous trip for an old man. After Wesley counseled him privately for an hour and a half, Belson then informed him that he had sent his servants into the village to invite everyone to come and hear Wesley preach. Crowding into the elegant house, the villagers listened intently as Wesley preached on Isaiah 55:6: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found: call ye upon him while he is near” (KJV). This was to be John Wesley’s last sermon.

On Thursday Wesley’s assistant, James Rogers, read to him from a recently published tract by Gustavus Vassa, an African who was sold into slavery in Barbados but then was sent by his master to England, where he became a Christian. The story so moved Wesley that he dictated a letter to his friend William Wilberforce who was actively fighting in Parliament to abolish the slave trade:

O be not weary in well doing! Go on in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away from it. . . .

That He who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things is the prayer of, dear sir,

Your affectionate servant,

John Wesley

Wesley had difficulty holding the pen to sign his name. This was to be his last letter.

By March 1, John Wesley, who had prepared so many for death, was himself happily awaiting his end. Although he had been speaking very little, that afternoon he decided to get up from bed. He surprised everyone by singing two stanzas of the metrical psalm of Isaac Watts that begins, “I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath.” He was able to sit up a little while and then had to lie down once again. As his closest friends gathered around him he was able to say amen to their prayers. At one point Wesley surprised everyone by saying with a strong voice, “The best of all is, God is with us!”

On Wednesday, March 2, 1791, his family and friends knelt at his bedside; his last word was “Farewell.” Their sadness was diminished by the knowledge he had entered into the joy of his Lord.

In his lifetime John Wesley had accomplished what few others have, and he died the most well-loved man in England. Beginning at thirty-six as an itinerant preacher, he traveled 250,000 miles on horseback and preached more than forty thousand sermons to crowds as large as twenty thousand. He regularly preached three times a day, often beginning at 5 A.M. At the time of his death, there were seventy-nine thousand Methodists in England and forty thousand in America. He was the “Father of the Religious Paperback,” publishing about five thousand sermons, tracts, and pamphlets. During his lifetime he lived frugally, giving away nearly $150,000 out of his meager income to spread the gospel.

What he left behind was one well-worn coat, two silver teaspoons, and the Methodist Church.

Reflection

Few men influenced their world for good like John Wesley. God used him to change the hearts of so many in England that many historians credit him with preventing the spread of the French Revolution to England. What lessons are there for us in John Wesley’s life?

Honor the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly.

Joshua 24:14