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GREAT MEN'S BODIES
throne to-day would always have to be reckoned with when danger menaced his land, and would certainly be heard from when the time came. What greater monarch is now alive? Or who as great?
JOHN WESLEY (1703–1791)
Founder of Methodism, admitted to Charterhouse School at eleven; at sixteen to Christ Church College, Oxford; he "became extraordinarily proficient in classical studies; at twenty-three a fellow in Lincoln College, and described as 'a superior classical scholar, a thoughtful and polished writer, and a skilful logician; ordained a deacon of the Church of England at twenty-two, and a priest in that church at twenty-five; a missionary in Georgia with General Oglethorpe two years.' In 1739 he organized the first Methodist society; and in his ministry of more than fifty years he travelled about forty-five hundred miles in a year, generally preaching from twice to four times a day, supervised all his preachers, and the erection of thousands of chapels; conducted an immense correspondence; managed a heavy publishing business, usually read while travelling, even on horseback. Wrote several original books and many pamphlets on passing events; wrote, edited, translated, or abridged not fewer than two hundred miscellaneous publications, which he published and sold through his preachers for the benefit of his society. Every public interest—the Sunday-school, the abolition of slavery, the circulation of tracts, charitable associations, popular education, and the like—occupied his thoughts, moved his sympathies, called forth his co-operation, and exhausted his purse. His eyes were opened to every detail, no matter how minute, that concerned the growth of his societies or the increase of the kingdom of God. He was always at work when awake, yet was never in a hurry. His industry and unremitted activity never were, never can be, excelled. It is estimated that during the fifty years of his itinerant ministry he travelled over 250,000 miles, and preached more than 42,000 sermons. From the feeble society he founded in 1739 the Methodist Church swelled at the time of his death to at least half a million of souls, besides morally and spiritually benefiting a multitude—'which no man could number.' Age could not chill the zeal of this apostolic man. Despite
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