Wesley - An Earnest Appeal (modernized)

There are some sermons, no matter how many hundred years old, that survive the retelling, indeed, need to be told! I believe this is one of them. This is not the whole work (it was a pamphlet originally) but rather the first part of the piece. I have also produced an audio rendition of my own for those who would prefer to hear the sermon spoken and attached that file at the end of this article.

An Earnest Appeal To Men of Reason and Religion

"Does our Law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?" John 7:51.

1. ALTHOUGH we “care very little if we are judged by you or by any human court” because we know that God will “make our righteous reward shine like the dawn, our vindication like the noonday sun.” yet we are ready to give a plain account to any who are willing to hear, both of our principles and of our actions; as those who have “renounced secret and shameful ways”, we desire nothing more “than by setting forth the truth plainly to commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.”

2. We see the countless follies and miseries of our fellow human beings. We see, on every side, either men of no religion at all, or men of a lifeless, formal religion. We are grieved at the sight of it; and we would greatly rejoice, if by any means we might convince some that there is a better religion to be had, — a religion which is worthy of the God who gave it. We are convinced that this religion is none other than love; the love of God and the love of all mankind. To love God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, as the God who has first loved us, as the fountain of all the good that we have received, and all we ever hope to enjoy. And secondly, it is loving every soul which God has made, every person on earth, as our very selves.

3. We believe this love to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a chaotic world, for all the miseries and evils of men. Wherever this love is, will be righteousness and happiness going hand in hand. In this love there is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long-suffering, the whole image of God; and at the same time a peace that surpasses all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind;

Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign’d;

Desires composed, affections ever even,

Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven.

4. We long to see this  religion established in the world, a religion of love, and joy, and peace, having its seat in the inmost soul, but forever revealing itself by its fruits, continually springing forth, not only in all innocence, but also in every kind of grace, spreading goodness and happiness all around it.

5. We have been seeking this religion for many years, as many know, if they would testify: But all this time, while seeking wisdom, we could not find it, we spent our energy in vain. But now that we have full conviction of this, we declare it to all mankind; for we don’t want others to wander out of the way, as we have done before them. But rather that they may go directly to the religion of love, by faith.

6. Now, if we suppose the Scriptures to be of God, we know that faith is, “the demonstrative evidence of things which are unseen,” it is the supernatural evidence of things which are invisible, the things which are not perceivable by eyes of flesh, or by any of our natural senses or faculties. Faith is that divine evidence by which the spiritual man discerns God, and the things of God. Faith is to the spiritual world, what our senses are in the natural world. Faith is the spiritual sensation of every soul that is born of God.

7. Perhaps you have not considered faith in this way. So let me explain it a bit more. According to the Scriptures, faith is the eye of the newborn soul. By this, every true believer in God “can see him who is invisible.” Since life and immortality have been brought to light by the gospel, it is in this way that we “see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;” and we see “what kind of love it is which the Father has lavished on us that we,” who are born of the Spirit, “should be called the sons of God.” Faith is the ear of the soul, by which a sinner “hears the voice of the Son of God, and lives”. This is the same voice which alone can awaken the dead and say “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Faith is the palate of the soul; for by it a believer can “taste the Word of God, and the powers of the age to come;” and by it “he both tastes and sees that God is gracious,” yes, “and merciful to him a sinner.”

Faith is the feeling of the soul, by which a believer perceives, both the existence and the presence of God in whom “he lives and moves, and has his being”. In fact he perceives the whole invisible world, the entire system of things eternal. It is by this faith that he feels “the love of God shed abroad in his heart.”

8. By this faith we are saved from all anxiety, from the pain of a wounded spirit, from discontent, from fear and sadness of heart, and from that inexpressible apathy and weariness, both of the world and of ourselves, which we were trapped in for so many years. In this faith we can find that love of God, and the love of all mankind which we couldn’t find anywhere else. We know this and feel this so passionately that we cannot but declare that this faith saves every one who takes part in it. It saves us both from sin and misery, from every unhappy and every unholy state of mind.

Soft peace she brings, wherever she arrives;

She builds our quiet, as she forms our lives;

Lays the rough paths of peevish nature even,

And opens in each breast a little heaven.

9. If you ask, “Then why doesn’t everyone have this faith? At least everyone who believes it to be such a blessed thing? Why don’t they believe immediately?”

We will answer from the Scriptures, “Faith is the gift of God.” No man is able to find it in himself. It is a work of God’s power. It requires as much power to revive a dead soul, as it would to raise a body that lies dead in the grave. It is a new creation and no one can renew the soul of a person except God who created the heavens and the earth right in the beginning.

10. Doesn’t your own experience teach you this? Can you give yourself this faith? Is it now in your power to see, or hear, or taste, or feel God? Have you already, or can you raise in yourself, any perception of God, or of an invisible world? I suppose you do not deny that there is an invisible world?

Now, is there any power in your soul by which you discern either these, or God who created them? Or, can all your wisdom and strength open up communication between yourself and the world of spirits? Is it in your power to burst the veil that is on your heart, and let the light of eternity come in? You know it is not. You not only do not, but cannot, by your own strength, believe in this way. The more you work at it, the more you will be convinced that - “it is the gift of God.”

11. It is the free gift of God, which he gives, not to those who are worthy of his favour, not to those who were already holy, and because of their holiness are eligibly to be crowned with all the blessings of his goodness. Rather, he gives it to the ungodly and unholy; to those who up until that very hour were eligible only for everlasting destruction; those to whom had not a single good thing to their credit and whose only plea was, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” No merit, no goodness in man comes before the forgiving love of God. His forgiving mercy requires nothing of us but an awareness of our sin and misery. But to all who see, and feel, and acknowledge their failings, and their utter inability to remove them, God freely gives faith, for the sake of Christ, in whom he is always “well pleased.”