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.
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