John Wesley — "I have often thought, that if I were to choose a book to read, it should be the …"
I have often thought, that if I were to choose a book to read, it should be the Bible.
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More from John Wesley
"I am not afraid of being accounted an enthusiast. I am afraid of nothing but sin."
"I offered Christ to the Negroes in Antigua. I offered him to the slaves. I offered him to the very dregs of the people."
"The best of all is, God is with us."
"I set myself on fire, and people come to watch me burn."
"The Methodists are a people who profess to pursue a Christian life by Scriptural rules and methods."
About John Wesley (1703-1791)
English Anglican cleric and founder of Methodism, whose open-air preaching and class-meeting structure created the largest 18th-century evangelical revival. Closely associated with Charles Wesley (his hymn-writing brother) and George Whitefield (early co-revivalist, later doctrinal opponent). For an intellectual contrast, see George Whitefield, Calvinist evangelical revivalist — Whitefield's predestinarian Calvinism vs Wesley's free-grace Arminian theology split the early Methodist movement permanently in the 1739-41 break. The founding evangelical Calvinist-Arminian schism — the two parallel evangelical traditions American Christianity descends from.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
When choosing what to read above all other books, the Bible stands alone as the most valuable. The speaker isn't dismissing other literature but ranking scripture as the single most worthwhile text — containing wisdom, guidance, and depth that no other writing matches. It's a personal declaration of priority: given free choice, this is where attention belongs.
Relevance to John Wesley
Wesley read the Bible compulsively throughout his life, studying it in Greek and Hebrew, preaching from it daily while riding thousands of miles across Britain. His Oxford 'Holy Club' was mockingly called 'Methodists' partly for their methodical scripture study. His entire theological framework — salvation by grace, sanctification, social justice — derived directly from intensive biblical engagement over seven decades of ministry.
The era
In 18th-century Britain, literacy was expanding rapidly through printing presses, coffeehouses, and circulating libraries. Secular novels, political pamphlets, and Enlightenment philosophy competed for readers' attention as never before. Wesley himself wrote and published prolifically to reach common people. His elevation of the Bible above this flood of new print was a deliberate counter-cultural statement defending scripture's authority during the Age of Reason.
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