Great Cloudof Witnesses

Session 5

George Fox (1624 – 1691)

Edward Burrough,an early Friend

“While waiting upon the Lord in silence, as often we did for many hours together, we received often the pouring down of the Spirit upon us, and our hearts were glad and our tongues loosened and our mouths opened, and we spake with new tongues as the Lord gave us utterance, and His Spirit led us, which was poured down upon us, on sons and daughters, and the glory of the Father was revealed. And then began we to sing praises to the Lord God Almighty and to the Lamb forever.”

John Wesley, home again at Epworth

Ridiculing the Methodists

John Wesleypreaching at Oxford (1744)

“How few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer!... Who of you is, in any degree, acquainted with the work of his Spirit, his supernatural work in the souls of men? Can you bear (unless now and then, in a church) any talk of the Holy Ghost?... In the name of the Lord God Almighty, I ask, What religion are you of?”

Thomas WalshMethodist lay preacher

“This morning the Lord gave me language that I knew not of, raising my soul to him in a wonderful manner.”

—Diary entry, March 8, 1750

Greatest Wesley Sound Bites

“The world is my parish” (after the bishop of Bristol complained about Wesley coming into “his” territory)

 “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can,

in all the ways you can, in all the places you can,

at all the times you can, to all the people you can,

as long as ever you can.”

William Law (1686 – 1761)

William Law“Resisting the Spirit, quenching the Spirit, grieving the Spirit gives growth to every evil that reigns in a fallen creation and leaves men and churches an easy prey to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Nothing but obedience to the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, trusting Him for continual inspiration can possibly keep men from being sinners or idolaters in all that they do.”

William Law“Read whatever chapter of Scripture you will, and be ever so delighted in it—yet it will leave you as poor, as empty and unchanged as it found you unless it has turned you wholly and solely to the Spirit of God, and brought you into full union with and dependence upon Him…. Take away this inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or suppose it to cease for a moment, then no religious acts or affections can give forth anything that is godly or divine.”