John Wesley — "I have been as much as possible upon the stretch for 70 years, and I bless God, …"
I have been as much as possible upon the stretch for 70 years, and I bless God, I am not tired yet.
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More from John Wesley
"What is the secret of your strength? I answer, the power of prayer."
"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 was much struck with the spirit of the people, who, though poor, were neat, clean, and cheerful. They seemed to have no care, but to please God."
"The world is my parish."
"I have often thought, that the best way to do good, is to do it as if you were doing it for yourself."
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
For seventy years the speaker has pushed himself to the absolute limit of his energy and capacity, giving everything he had every single day. Yet rather than feeling burned out or depleted, he credits God for the stamina to continue. It is a declaration that total, lifelong commitment to a worthy purpose need not exhaust a person — sustained devotion can itself be a source of strength.
Relevance to John Wesley
John Wesley (1703–1791) rode over 250,000 miles on horseback and delivered more than 40,000 sermons, maintaining this punishing pace into his late eighties. He believed in practical holiness — faith expressed through relentless, organized service. He founded Methodist societies with military-like discipline, wrote constantly, and rose at 4 a.m. daily. This quote captures his lived theology precisely: ceaseless labor was not a burden but a spiritual practice and evidence of divine grace.
The era
Wesley preached during 18th-century Britain's most turbulent decades — explosive industrialization, mass urban poverty, gin epidemics, and profound spiritual neglect by the established Church of England. The Methodist revival was a direct intervention, bringing field preaching to miners, factory workers, and the destitute whom polite religion ignored. His seventy years of effort coincided with a society in desperate need of exactly the kind of relentless, grassroots moral energy he embodied.
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