John Wesley (28 June [O.S. 17 June] 1703 – 2 March 1791) was an English cleric and theologian who, with his brother Charles and fellow cleric George Whitefield, founded Methodism.
Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this.
The Church recruited people who had been starched and ironed before they were washed.
To slay the sinner is then the first use of the Law, to destroy the life and strength wherein he trusts and convince him that he is dead while he lives; not only under the sentence of death, but actually dead to God, void of all spiritual life, dead in trespasses and sins.
It cannot be that the people should grow in grace unless they give themselves to reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people.
In souls filled with love, the desire to please God is continual prayer.
I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.
Any 'Christians' who take for themselves any more than the plain necessaries of life, live in an open habitual denial of the Lord. They have gained riches and hell-fire.
Oh Lord, let me not live to be useless.
If I had 300 men who feared nothing but God, hated nothing but sin, and were determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, I would set the world on fire.
A meek spirit gives no trouble willingly to any: a quiet spirit bears all wrongs without being troubled.
You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most. It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.
I can by no means approve the scurrility and contempt with which the Romanists have often been treated. I dare not rail at, or despise, any man: much less those who profess to believe in the same Master. But I pity them much; having the same assurance, that Jesus is the Christ, and that no Romanist can expect to be saved, according to the terms of his covenant.
Prayer is where the action is.
O, Begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. . . Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days. . . Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer.
The best of it is, God is with us.
When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man, when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man!
Humility and patience are the surest proofs of the increase of love.
No circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst in sunder all the ties of humanity.
The readiest way to escape from our sufferings is, to be willing they should endure as long as God pleases.