Preach It Oyster Man!

“The early Methodist meetings were often led by lay preachers with very limited education. On one occasion, such a preacher took as his text Luke 19:21, “Lord, I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.” Not knowing the word “austere,” he thought that the text spoke of “an oyster man.” He spoke about the work of those who retrieve oysters from the sea-bed. The diver plunges

down from the surface, cut off from his natural environment, into bone-chilling water. He gropes in the dark, cutting his hands on the sharp edges of the shells. Now he has the oyster, and kicks back up to the surface, up to the warmth and light and air, clutching in his torn and bleeding hands the object of his search. So Christ descended from the glory of heaven into the squalor of earth, into sinful human society, in order to retrieve humans and bring them back up with Him to the glory of heaven, His torn and bleeding hands a sign of the value He has placed on the object of His quest. Twelve men were converted that evening. Afterwards, someone complained to Wesley about the inappropriateness of allowing preachers who were too ignorant to know the meaning of the texts they were preaching on. Wesley, simply said, “Never mind, the Lord got a dozen oysters tonight.”

(From Albert C. Outler, John Wesley’s Sermons: An Introduction, p 79)

Poll: How do we discern that individuals are truly called by God and without personal motives?

Poll: How do we discern that individuals are truly called by God and without personal motives?

Fletcher and the Three Hebrews

JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER, native of Nyon, Switzerland (1729), and graduate of the University of Geneva, was prevented by an accident from becoming a soldier of the Portuguese Army in Brazil.

As he was about to start, a serving-maid spilled a kettle of boiling water on him, incapacitating him for some time. Later, under Methodist influence, he entered into a Christian experience and became one of Wesley’s preachers. Still later he was appointed vicar of the Church of England at Madeley, a notoriously wicked community.

On Sunday mornings he went about at five o clock, ringing a bell to rouse people in time for service. His church soon was crowded, to the disgust of a group of evildoers who determined to stop him. They arranged a “bull-baiting” near his preaching place and planned to pull him off his horse when he arrived. But, called to a child’s funeral, he was providentially a little late for the service; and, while the conspirators were in a drinking booth, the bull broke loose, charged the tent and scattered them so effectually that he preached in peace.

A butcher forbade his wife attending Fletcher’s church threatening to cut her throat if she went. When she started to go, he exclaimed, “Are you going to Fletcher s church?” “I am,” she replied. “Then, I shall not cut your throat as I intended, he declared, “`but I will heat the oven and throw you into it, when you come home!” Fletcher preached that morning on the first Scripture lesson of the day-the three Hebrews, saved in the flames of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. The message so heartened the distracted woman that, on returning, she courageously faced her husband and conquered his evil spirit until he was convicted of sin.

This article was taken from the book entitled “One Hundred and One Methodist Stories” by Carl F. Price and published by the Methodist Book Concern.