The Last Sermon of John Wesley

We have recently passed an extraordinary historical milestone.  On February 23, 1791, John Wesley preached his last sermon.  It would not be many more days until he would die.  He began preaching in 1725.  Over the span of his sixty-six-year preaching career he preached over 40,000 times according to his Journal and Sermon Register.  This meant that for a long span of time he preached three and four times per day.  There would be no way to overestimate his contribution to the Great Awakening in Britain or to the Methodist movement not only in England but worldwide.

I need to make something clear about Wesley’s sermons and his preaching.  When one refers to Wesley’s sermons, they are talking about published works.  In Wesley’s world a writer composed a sermon with the idea that an audience would read it.  Wesley published 141 original sermons in his lifetime.  Methodists consider the first 44 of these – The Standard Sermons of John Wesley – to be part of their doctrinal standards.  For Wesley, preaching was an oral activity.  He preached to congregations and crowds of people that would gather almost everywhere he went.  In these public events he would use the same or similar content in multiple locations.  They might be pieces that Wesley had memorized.  He also frequently spoke extemporaneously.

So, I pause to give thanks for a remarkable oratory career.  If he had accomplished nothing else we would remember Wesley as a prolific and effective preacher.