This year, the World Methodist Council encouraged the world-wide Methodist community to mark the end of the 275th Anniversary year by gathering to bear witness to our continued commitment to spreading ‘Scriptural Holiness’; and to mark the moment of John Wesley’s transforming experience (a quarter before nine in the evening) by singing one of the most celebrated hymns written by his brother, Charles Wesley, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”
The plans of the Victoria Road Circuit to take this opportunity to bear witness and celebrate were impeded by different challenges:
- We wanted to gather in the open air, so that our witness could be more public – and that required getting permission from the Municipality;
- One of the locations at which we wanted to gather was the Taxi terminus in Vrygrond – but that week there was a continuation of the shootings that had begun a week earlier and we were advised that it would not be safe to gather there;
- Co-ordinating the preparation of singers and the movement of attenders from around the Circuit required special attention;
- And the one thing we could not predict was the weather – on that Saturday it was cold, windy and raining…
We sang, not only the hymn that Charles wrote to mark that occasion, “Where shall my wondering soul begin?” but also other classics of Wesleyan hymnody, including “And can it be”; “Love Divine, all loves excelling”; “All hail the power of Jesus’ name”; and, of course, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise”. Those who attended were inspired and felt that there had been a connecting, not only with our historic roots, but with the world-wide fellowship of Methodists today.
We look forward to the gathering planned for later this year, when members of the Circuit will gather for a festival of music and mission on 26 October 2014 in the afternoon.
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In
1738, the month of May was not a ‘merry’ month for John or Charles Wesley. They
were consumed with doubts and uncertainties about their relationship with God
and their eternal destiny. They spent time praying, studying the Bible and
reading various books, and sought counsel from other preachers and friends, but
nothing helped. The Moravian Peter Bohler was leading a regular meeting in London’s Fetter Lane and Charles and John were in almost daily contact with Bohler. He asked Charles ‘Do you hope to be saved?’ and Charles replied, ‘I do!’
‘For what reason do you hope it?’ ‘Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God.’ Charles reports, ‘He shook his head, and said no more. I thought him very uncharitable, saying in my heart, ‘What, are not my endeavours sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavours? I have nothing else to trust to.’
But all of that was to change dramatically for the two brothers in the period between 21 and 24 May 1738: 21 May was Pentecost Sunday…[and] the day of Charles Wesley’s conversion. Charles said he felt the Spirit of God striving with his spirit ‘till by degrees He chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I found myself convinced…I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.’
John, in his Journal records on that day, ‘I received the surprising news that my brother had found rest to his soul.’
Three days later, at one of the Moravian meetings in Aldersgate Street, John Wesley got his breakthrough. He had already discussed Justification by faith with Peter Bohler, but this was different. He wrote in his journal:
‘In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.
I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’ (John Wesley Journal, May 24th 1738).
