John Wesley — "I have been writing a sermon on the use of money. Oh, what a flat, unprofitable …"
I have been writing a sermon on the use of money. Oh, what a flat, unprofitable subject it is!
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More from John Wesley
"I have often thought that the greatest comfort in life, is to have a friend."
"Though I am an old man, I am but a little child; for I am just beginning to learn the alphabet of salvation."
"I have often thought, that if I were to choose a companion for life, it should be one who had as little money as myself."
"I should be glad if I could spend my whole life in reading and writing."
"Reading the Scripture, I find there no other way to heaven than the way of holiness."
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
Wesley expresses frustrated irony about preaching on money management — a topic he finds tedious and unrewarding to write about, even while recognizing its practical necessity for his congregation. The self-deprecating complaint reveals a pastor wrestling with mundane pastoral duties, aware that financial instruction lacks the spiritual electricity of grace, salvation, or holiness sermons yet remains unavoidable for guiding ordinary believers through daily life.
Relevance to John Wesley
Wesley famously developed three financial principles: earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can. He lived austerely, giving away most of his substantial publishing income. His discomfort writing this sermon reflects genuine tension — money matters conflicted with his passionate focus on sanctification and revival. Yet his 1744 sermon 'The Use of Money' became one of Methodism's most influential practical teachings, shaping generations of Methodist economic ethics.
The era
Wesley preached during Britain's early Industrial Revolution when wealth disparities were exploding, working-class Methodists faced new commercial temptations, and established Anglican clergy were often seen as complicit with wealthy elites. Evangelical movements were reclaiming Christianity for the poor. Addressing money directly was both pastorally urgent and culturally risky — too much emphasis invited accusations of materialism, too little left congregants spiritually unarmed against capitalism's emerging moral pitfalls.
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