The Sermon on the Mount (Pure Gold Classics, 42)

“Long for the living God. Be a lover of God and all mankind.” — John Wesley

After his heart-warming experience on Aldersgate Street in London, John Wesley loved to preach and teach about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He took this sermon very seriously and devoted his life to following its precepts, which he explains very clearly in this classic work.

Wesley’s desire was to present “plain truth to plain people.” Editor Clare Weakley has endeavored to help him with this by updating the original eighteenth-century language in an effort to make this book more palatable and user-friendly for today’s reader.

Above all else, Wesley wanted his congregations and readers to enter into the “more-abundant life” that Jesus came to give us, and to lead us, as children of God, into the very life of Christ itself. The content of this book is far-reaching and includes:

• Being Blessed
• Inheriting the Earth
• Fulfilling the Law
• Fasting for Grace
• Receiving God's Gifts

As you read The Sermon on the Mount, you will see that the Beatitudes are the attitudes we are to be and have as believers. Wesley writes, “Long for the living God. Long to wake up in His likeness and be satisfied with it. Be a lover of God and all mankind.” This book will show you how.

John Wesley (1703&#8211;1791) is known for two things: cofounding Methodism and his tremendous work ethic. In the 1700s, when land travel was by walking, horseback, or carriage, Wesley logged more than four thousand miles a year. During his lifetime he preached about forty thousand sermons. In 1729, he became a tutor at Oxford University. While there, he founded a religious club that was nicknamed "the Methodists." In 1738, Wesley's life was changed when he was attending a religious meeting in London. He later said that while listening to somebody read Martin Luther's <i>Preface to Romans</i>, "I felt my heart strangely warmed." Afterward, he became a great preacher, traveling throughout the British Isles. Although he never intended to form a new church separate from the Church of England, his followers soon began to form their own organization. The Methodists placed great emphasis on living a holy life, and they had many traveling preachers. Wesley preached his last sermon on February 23, 1791, and died a week later, on March 2, at the age of eighty-seven.