The Quotable Mr Wesley

Abstract

A quick look at the internet will reveal many sayings cheerfully attributed to John Wesley without a shred of historical or literary support, or even remote plausibility. In this little book Stephen Gunter gathers genuine and attested quotations from Wesley’s works to support the work of evangelism. The quotations are arranged in alphabetical order of themes, from ‘Bible’ to ‘World’, and forty-three topics are covered. Given the purpose of the book, it is not surprising that these include faith, grace, justification, new birth, repentance, salvation, and sin. Other topics might perhaps have been considered, like baptism, church, discipleship, and maybe even doubt: Wesley’s comment under the heading ‘freethinkers’ that ‘freethinkers, so called, are seldom close thinkers’ might not be the best starting point for apologetics in a post-Christendom age! References are given to the standard sources, including the Jackson and Bicentennial editions of the Works. Space is evidently at a premium in a handy book like this, but some idea of context would have been helpful, beyond a simple reference to ‘Works’ and a volume and page number, so that the reader could know if the quotation came from a sermon, a treatise, a journal entry, or some other source. As the cover observes, this book will also be useful for devotional reading and reflection and could be used imaginatively in encouraging people to explore Wesley’s teaching.