Open-air Preaching 'There is always a large number of people in a district who, either owing to hostility or apathy, remain untouched and unreached. In my judgment there is only one way of solving the problem these present, viz. since they will not come to us, we must go to them. No reader of John Wesley's Journal will, I think, dispute the statement that we owe the religious revival of the eighteenth century to the revival of open-air preaching."
Mr. R. Mupie Smitu in the Dazly News.
Open-air Preaching HE extracts given in this chapter show clearly with what insistency Mr. Wesley urged the practice of outdoor or field-preaching. It was one of the most potent agencies in the establishment of Methodism, and in his opinion one of the essentials of its growth and expansion.
It will hardly be affirmed that his followers have proved faithful to his exhortations. With the increase of their places of worship their ardour for the service of the street or the field sensibly diminished. This was apparent even in Wesley's own lifetime. Methodism has made wonderJohn Wesley on Preaching ful advancement, but its success would have been even more remarkable had the precept and example of its founder been more closely followed.
And who can doubt, that, to-day, in common with all other churches, it needs to have recourse to primitive methods? The growing indifference of the masses of the people.to public worship is creating a serious problem for the churches. It is surely a startling fact, as ascertained by the recent religious census in London, that ''60 per cent. of the available population is apparently either apathetic or antagonistic as regards ~ attendance at a place of worship on a Sunday." And the indifference of London can be matched by that of large provincial towns. Outdoor
Open-air Preaching preaching will not of itself remedy this unfortunate condition of things; but if it were attempted on a properly commensurate scale and in a sufficiently competent manner, it would have results far greater than are commonly anticipated.
It was not so much from choice as from necessity that John Wesley was led to preach in the fields, but what in the first instance was forced upon him by circumstances, became afterwards a method he never tired of eulogising. As in many other instances in his career, the thing to which he was driven grew into the thing he would have chosen, the hard ungenial scowl of necessity brightened into the smile of privilege.
John Wesley on Preaching HOW WESLEY BEGAN IN THE OPEN AIR ''T returned to England in the beginning of February, 1738. I was now in haste to retire to Oxford, and bury myself in my beloved obscurity; but I was detained in London week after week by the Trustees for the Colony of Georgia. In the meantime I was continually importuned to preach in one and another church; and that not only morning, noon, and night on Sunday, but on weekdays also. As I was lately come from a far country, vast multitudes flocked together; but in a short time, partly because of the unwieldy crowds, partly because of my unfashionable doctrine, I was excluded from one and another church, and, at length,
Open-air Preaching shut out of all! Not daring to be silent, after a short struggle between honour and conscience, I made a virtue of necessity, and preached in the middle of Moorfields. Here were thousands upon thousands, abundantly more than any church could contain ; and numbers among them, who never went to any church or place of public worship at all. More and more of them were cut to the heart, and came to me all in tears, inquiring with the utmost eagerness what they must do to be saved. I said, 'If all of you will meet on Thursday evening, I will advise you as well as I can.' The first evening about twelve persons came; the next week, thirty or forty.
When they were increased to about an hundred, I took down their names John Wesley on Preaching and places of abode, intending, as often as it were convenient, to call upon them at their own houses.
Thus, without any previous plan or design, began the Methodist society in England.''—Sermon cxxxil., Wesley's Works, vol. vii. p. 422.
SUNDRY COMMENDATIONS OF FIELDPREACHING ''T] wonder at those who still talk so loudly of the indecency of fieldpreaching. The highest indecency is in St. Paul's Church, where a considerable part of the congregation are asleep, or talking, or looking about, not minding a word the preacher says. On the other hand, there is the highest decency in a churchyard or field, when the whole congregation
Open-air Preaching behave and look as if they saw the Judge of all, and heard Him speaking from heaven."—/Journal, 1748, vol. 11..p. 113.
''] preached at eight in an open place at the Gins, a village on one side of the town. Many were there who never did and never would come to the Room. O what a victory would Satan gain, if he could put an end to field-preaching. But that, I trust, he never will: at least, not till my head is laid." —/ournal, 1759, vol. ii. p. 480.
""On Monday and Tuesday evening I preached abroad, near the Keelmen's Hospital, to twice the people we should have had at the House.
What marvel the devil does not love field-preaching! Neither dol. I love John Wesley on Preaching a commodious room, a soft cushion, an handsome pulpit. But where is my zeal, if I do not trample all these under foot, in order to save one more soul ?"'—/Journal, 1759, vol. ii. p. 491.
''A vast majority of the immense congregation in Moorfields were deeply serious. One such hour might convince any impartial man of the expediency of field-preaching.
What building, except St. Paul's Church, would contain such a congregation? And if it would, what human voice could have reached them there? By repeated observations I find I can command thrice the number in the open air that I can under a roof. And who can say the time for field-preaching is over, while (1) greater numbers than ever
Open-air Preaching attend. (2) The converting, as well as convincing power of God is eminently present with them?"—/ournal,
1759, vol. il. p. 515.
About seven I preached at the Gins, and the people flocked together from all quarters. The want of fieldpreaching has been one cause of deadness here. I do not find any great increase of the work of God without it. If ever this is laid aside, I expect the whole work will die away.''—
Journal, 1764, vol. iii. p. 184.
'Have we not used it too sparingly?
"'It seems we have: (1) Because our call is to save that which is lost.
Now, we cannot expect them to seek us. Therefore we should go and seek them. (2) Because we are particularly called, by 'going into the John Wesley on Preaching highways and hedges,' which none else will do, 'to compel them to come in.' (3) Because that reason against it is not good: 'The house will hold all that come.' The housegsmay hold all that come to the house; but not all that would come to the field."'
—Minutes of Conference, Wesley's Works, vol. viii. p. 300.
'¢And there has been considerable good done at Bandon; and will be more, if the Preachers do not coop themselves up in the House. But no great good will be done at any place without field-preaching."— Letter to Mr. John Mason (1768), vol. xil. p. 435- 'Tf you desire to promote the work of God, you should preach abroad as often as possible. Nothing destroys
Open-air Preaching the devil's kingdom like this.'"'—Letter to Mr. Zechariah Yewdall (1782), vol.
If the outdoor preaching of our day is to yield results commensurate with those of the past, it must approximate to it in character. It must not be left to haphazard effort and well-meaning but incompetent enthusiasm; but must command in organisation and gift the best the churches can afford. It is a strikingly significant fact that the most successful open-air preaching of the eighteenth century was that of Whitefield and Wesley, two young men fresh from their University studies, cultured as well as godly. The artisan of our large towns can appreciate brains, and if the masters of John Wesley on Preaching the modern pulpit would go and give him of their best outside, in an honest, manly, affectionate spirit, he would not be lacking in response.
The remarks of the superintendent of the recent religious census in London, Mr. R. Mudie Smith, on this point are deserving of serious attention. He says, speaking of open-air preaching as one of the means of reaching outsiders which the census has demonstrated the need of: '* Today that divine method has fallen into disrepute, owing to the fact that it has become almost the monopoly of men as earnest as they are unwise. On Sunday evenings, at occasional street corners, a brother may be seen and heard addressing a handful of people, the majority of whom have accomOpen-air Preaching panied him from the church or mission to which he is attached.
The speaker has zeal, but his zeal is 'not according to knowledge,' and I have often when listening blushed with shame at hearing the Christian religion so misrepresented and defameds | Either text after' text is hurled at the unhappy auditor without connection, rhyme, or reason; or statements are made narrow in thought, exaggerated in language, accompanied by promises of Heaven or threats of Hell with an intensity worthy of a Savonarola, and an omniscience which would be unpardonable in a Lord Chief Justice. It is to me an amazing thing that a method of reaching the people adopted with such success by Jesus Christ and His M 161 John Wesley on Preaching disciples should be left to those least able to make efficient use of it. It is not without significance that the greatest sermon the world has ever heard was delivered on a mountainside. If there is one place more than another that demands our best it is the street corner. Wisdom, tact, culture, experience, elocution, delivery 'are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul.'
Strong lungs and enthusiasm are not sufficient for these things. There must be the wooing note, there must be reasoning together, there must be charm, persuasiveness, if we are to accomplish what our predecessors in this work accomplished."
Wesley's Own Experience and Practice '" He lived the life of an apostle, giving away all that he earned, travelling and preaching all the year, and every year, till the age of eighty-eight; it has been reckoned that he gave away thirty thousand pounds, travelled about a hundred thousand miles, and preached forty thousand sermons."
Taine's History of English Literature.