I usually start by speaking to the House of Commons in the time-honoured way, in the same way that I'm going to start today. ‘Mr Speaker, Sir’. But before I even set out on my speech and even address Mr Speaker, there's something else which we all do as we enter the House of Commons. We bow in the direction of Mr Speaker in the Speaker's Chair. Though, of course, you and I would love to bow to George ThomasGeorge at any time, because he's George and he's a marvellous person. But, you know, we bow because of something more. We bow because the House of Commons originally met in St Stephen's Chapel, and in St Stephen's Chapel there was, of course, an altar. So we bowed as we went in towards something which was higher than the Parliament of the people. We bowed to the altar of God. So even before we address Mr Speaker, the State, the Parliament of today, acknowledges that those supreme values which truly govern our society come not from Parliament but come deep within our religious beliefs.
It has today been a wonderful service. Dr Grylls has preached a marvellous sermon. I know you'll understand when I say he's said it all and far better than most of us could ever dream of saying it. But I want to say what a great honour and privilege it is for me to be here to re-open the house where John Wesley lived, and for us all to be here, not in a strange place, but in a place where history was made: in the very place where history was made. In a place where he changed his course and decided each day what his work would be. When he died there was a sermon preached in that church and the text taken by Dr Winehead was this:
“Know ye not that there is a friend and a great man for us this day in Israel?”
It is that same man we are honouring today and remembering today. But he, like so many of us, did not do it alone. There was also his family; you've got to bring in mention of his mother and when we listened to your sermon in church you said you would know her as a lady with an iron will.—This is a familiar phrase indeed.—She was a lady with an iron will, as you will have read about her. John and Charles Wesley, as so many famous speakers, had such a very [end p1] remarkable mother. And she also educated her family. I was fascinated to read how she taught them. None of her children were taught to read until they were five. One day was allowed the child “wherein to learn his letters, and each of them did it in that time to know all its letters, great and small, except Molly and Nancy who were a day and a half before they knew a third of them” , for which she said: “I thought them very dull.” For now John and George Wesley were only a day on learning not only that but a great deal else perfectly. It is interesting I should look at that remarkable Wesley family. We honour John and Charles Wesley today but, you know, their influence stretched right across history. It stretched, if I might say, in one way into politics, for during his early life Charles Wesley had to make a great decision, he was asked by a very wealthy kinsman if he should be his heir—a difficult choice for a young man to make. He said, “no” , and so another kinsman actually went on to be heir and that kinsman became the grandfather of the Duke of Wellington, because the name Wellesley is, of course, the same as Wesley. And you see that the Duke of Wellington was related to the Wesley family.
Charles, too, in his early days at school was a tremendous help to a young man who was a friend of his at school. This young man, John Murray, had very strong ideas even at school and he was standing up for certain things which he believed in. That young man, John Murray, became one of our greatest lawyers of all time: Lord Mansfield. It was Lord Mansfield who gave the famous judgment, famous throughout the world as coming from our common law and from our British courts, who said: “One man could not own another in this wanting” , and when the negro came before the court the great Lord Mansfield gave his judgment which was celebrated among people everywhere: “Set the black man free” .
So this family has influenced us across things which are practiced—things which have practically mattered in legal affairs but, above all, in the faith in which we are enjoined together to worship today. [end p2]
Now what can one say afresh of this prince of Israel? The statistics will tell us a great deal. He covered during his ministry a quarter of a million miles—that's as far as from here to the moon. A distance too far to be tried even today, which was a miracle of determination and inspiration in those days. He preached 40,000 sermons—a bit daunting, isn't it?—40,000 sermons, and I agree, when you read them, that they don't have the light which undoubtedly he had when he delivered them. He crossed the Irish Channel fifty times. He wrote over four hundred books. When he was eighty-one, in this house, he was complaining that he could write no more than fifteen hours a day. When he was eighty-six he was found bitterly complaining that he hadn't the strength to preach more than two sermons a day. What more can one say about this astonishing man? The son of a Lincolnshire vicar. You will know the name of the first occupant of the house where I live—it was Robert Walpole. But if I test you, few will know of anything more than that though he was there for twenty years. But everyone will know of only the name of the occupant of this house and the works which he did.
We all live in a changing world. People often say today: ‘What can one person do amongst so many?’. ‘What can one person do?’. You hear the cry so often, but you never heard that from John Wesley. You never heard it from Charles. They were sure one man and a faith could change the world if they would, and they did. How often do you say, as I say quite often, to someone whom you know: “You can't do better than your best” ? But faith and an inspirational brilliance do enable us to do just that: better than our best, and it enabled John and Charles Wesley to do better than their best. The main inspiration for them brought out the same supreme faithful endeavour in others, and so the band of Methodists began to circle the world and bring about a great influence among the peoples of the world.
Mr Speaker, these two men were taught the truth. They lived the truth, and they proclaimed the truth. But even that wasn't enough for them, because they were doing all of that before this great supreme ministry began. And even all of that done insufficiently despite their burning zeal. The zenith of their [end p3] powers to which he refers came only when they had discovered the truth within themselves. Not only taught it, not only lived by it, not only proclaimed it that they had this divine inspiration which made them discover it within themselves on this very day, so many years ago, in Aldersgate. From then John Wesley and Charles Wesley found a strength they had not discovered a few days before. From then they spoke with a new authority and went out to speak not because of what they knew from within themselves. We heard it clearly in the hymn we sang today. Sometimes, you know, I think we sing Charles Wesley 's hymns, enjoy them tremendously, but we don't always listen to the words, or hear what the words mean. I've been thinking of that hymn we sang today: “And thou who camest from above, the pure celestial cry of God, kindle a flame of sacred love on the meek altar on my heart” . They had that. They had that faith within. It was that which enabled them to speak and to convey the truth to their generation. To convince their generation with their magical tongues, with their wonderful music, that the unchanging values which John and Charles Wesley preached and spoke had real meaning to their contemporaries. It came from their inner faith.
Mr. Speaker, and so we honour them today, the very same virtues remain all the time. We had need of them then. We have need of their successors now. As I do this supreme honourable duty, I just remember the last words almost which John Wesley spoke in this house. The first verse will not offend us here, not at John Wesley 's House:
“My days of praise shall ne'er be past, while life and thought and being last, or immortality endures.”
It does so here today.