John Wesley moved mountains by standing on a chair!
BURNING AND SHINING LIGHT
He was a gospel preacher in the line of Peter and Paul. Like them and others like them, he was courageous, extremely mobile, and daringly brave in all his preaching engagements.
Wesley was a biblical evangelist of the very highest quality. He was not conditioned by committees or influenced by psychologists or their equivalents of that day. Far from it, he was a burning and shining light, radiating the love and power of his Saviour.
Let us look together at the gospel preacher in action, and examine the ‘pulpits’ that he preached from, some are so simple they are almost sublime. John Wesley could take an ordinary object of every day use and change its normal natural use into a supernatural item for the proclamation of saving and transforming message of the Cross of Calvary.
Often his pulpit was a purely natural one. But whenever practical he preferred that something be prepared for him. It was necessary for him to be raised above the level of the crowds of people, especially in view of his tiny stature. If he was not on a hillside or a rock, or speaking from a window, a balcony, a gallery, or on the steps of a building, or a market cross, he required elevation.
This was most frequently supplied by a chair, on which he would stand.
IRELAND
One spring day at Nenagh in Ireland he was urged to preach by one of the soldiers in the dragoons stationed in the town. Wesley asked that a chair be carried out to the market place, and from the chair now pulpit brought a message of saving grace.
SCOTLAND
In Edinburgh, on Castle Hill Wesley asked for a chair and the chair was placed just opposite the sun. The people gathered could see and listen to him in comparative ease.
ENGLAND
After the angry mob had attacked the house where he was staying at Bolton, Wesley with
great courage walked down into the thick of the crowd. “I called for a chair. The winds were hushed, and all was calm and still. My heart was filled with love, my eyes with tears, and my mouth with arguments. They were amazed, they were ashamed, they melted down, and they devoured every word. What a turn was this!”
I liked the account of Wesley borrowing a kitchen chair from Martha Meggitt at Thorne which he preached on in the market place there. Martha was special in the fact she also ironed his cuffs and ruffles whenever he came to Thorne.
Many of the chairs have gone, though some remain. THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED.
Page created 7 July 2006