Opus 2011-178, Fellowship and Worship

I was reading in Wesley’s Journals and came across this bit of correction he offered:

“We went to Lowestoft, where the people have stood firm from the beginning.  Observing in the evening that forty or fifty people were talking together, as soon as the service was over, (a miserable custom that prevails in most places of public worship, throughout England and Ireland,) I strongly warned the congregation against it; as I had done those at Norwich and Yarmouth.  They received it in love; and the next evening, all went silently away.  But this warning must be given again and again in every place, or it will not be not effectual.”  Wesley, John.  The Works of John Wesley, Volume IV, Third Edition.  Kansas City:  Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1979, p. 263.

I thought this was interesting because it goes totally opposite of the current received wisdom.  Why was Wesley so straight laced?  At another place he had this to say about a school he ran,

“...either the school should cease, or the Rule of it be punctually observed:  Particularly that the children should never play; and that a master should b always present with them.”  ibid, p. 259

Children were not to be allowed to play.  Did this mean at all times or only in formal school?

Many of us want revival.  We want to be salt and light.  Instead of looking to the lesson taught by people whom God used to bring revival in the past we look to modern gurus who have a lot of money to be made selling books and DVD’s.  We listen to experts who have careers to build and egos to bloat.  We embrace styles of worship that mimic rock concerts because they appeal to a generation that has a history of casual drug use, fornication and alcohol abuse.  We laugh at people like Wesley who changed the course of history in England.

This is progress?

homo unius libri