Wesley Struggling for Spiritual Equilibrium

Even being a great evangelist, like the 18th century John Wesley, did not guarantee spiritual peace. Ronald Knox writes how some of Wesley’s converts possessed “an equilibrium of spirit which Wesley could not find in himself. Arvin Gradin, for instance, could boast of ‘a firm confidence in God, and persuasion of his favour; serene peace and steadfast tranquillity of mind, with a deliverance from every fleshly desire, and from every outward and inward sin’ [Wesley Diary 10 August 1738)]. Wesley was destined to come across this kind of thing again, but not to experience it. He was to be like Moses, viewing from Mount Phasga, a promised land he was fated never to enjoy”: (Knox, Enthusiasm, 1950, p.469).

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