Wesley, John

Wesley, John, born at Epworth Rectory in 1703. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1729 became director of the little band of "Oxford Methodists." In 1735 he went as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Georgia where a new colony had been founded under the governorship of Gen. Oglethorpe. On his voyage he was deeply impressed with the piety and Christian courage of some German fellow travellers, Moravians. During his short ministry in Georgia he met with many discouragements and returned home much dissatisfied. In London he again fell in with the Moravians and from now on he labored to spread what he believed to be the everlasting gospel, travelling, preaching and making converts. He died at the age of 88 in the year 1791. The part which he actually took in writing the many hymns ascribed to the two brothers John and Charles is difficult to ascertain, but it is reasonably certain that more than thirty translations from the German, French, and Spanish, chiefly from the German, were exclusively his and although somewhat free they embody the fire and energy of the originals and have had a wide circulation. He has translated nos. 71, 185, 200.