“I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8).
On February 8, 1750, at 12:15 p.m., the buildings of London started to sway, frightening the city’s inhabitants. In his diary, John Wesley described the earthquake: “There were three distinct shakes, or wavings to and fro, attended with an hoarse, rumbling noise, like thunder.”
Exactly one month later, a second and stronger quake hit the city, this time in the evening hours. The “strong and jarring motion,” as Wesley called it, toppled chimneys, rang church bells, and roused people from their sleep. With a population estimated at over 600,000, London was abuzz over the earthquakes. Preachers found plenty of ammunition for their admonitions.
Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, saw the quakes as warnings to “the Mart of Infidelity,” as he described his city. In a published sermon, he said: “It will be Blindness willful and inexcusable not to apply to ourselves this strong Summons from God, to Repentance.”
Wesley wrote: “How gently does God deal with this nation! O that our repentance may prevent heavier marks of his displeasure!”
After the second quake, a “prophet” announced the Almighty would shake the city a third time on the night of April 4. His prediction created widespread panic, and by the time the day arrived, London had become a place of frenzied terror. Charles, the other famous Wesley, wrote in his diary: “the Westminster end of the town [was] full of coaches, and crowds flying out of the reach of divine justice, with astonishing precipitation….The vulgar [or common people] were in almost as great consternation as their betters. Most of them watched all night: multitudes in the fields and open places: several in their coaches. Many removed their goods. London looked like a sacked city. A lady, just stepping into her coach to escape, dropped down dead.”
Fear sometimes creates more hysteria than actual trouble.
Charles had scheduled a church service for that April evening at the Foundery, the Methodist’s main meeting place in London. Though known primarily for writing thousands of hymns, his published sermons reveal him to have been quite the preacher. That evening, he chose the text Psalm 46:8: “Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.”
With people listening like never before, his opening sentences rang out: “Of all the judgments which the righteous God inflicts on sinners here, the most dreadful and destructive is an earthquake. This he has lately brought on our part of the earth, and thereby alarmed our fears, and bid us ‘prepare to meet our God’! The shocks which have been felt in divers places since that which made this city tremble, may convince us that the danger is not over, and ought to keep us still in awe; seeing ‘his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.’”
In his journal, Charles wrote, “many came all night knocking at the Foundery-door, and begging admittance for God’s sake.” He recorded the faithful were “calm and quiet” and had “a glorious night.”
With religious activities ended and not fretting over the evening’s remaining
hours, Charles headed to bed. His journal the next day reads: “At four I rose after a night of sound sleep, while my neighbours watched.”
About the Columnist: Paul V. Harrison has pastored Madison FWB Church in Madison, Alabama since 2015. Previously, he pastored Cross Timbers FWB church in Nashville, Tennessee, for 22 years. He was an adjunct professor at Welch College for 17 years, teaching church history and Greek. Paul is the creator of Classic Sermon Index, a subscription-based online index of over 66,000 sermons, with clients including Harvard, Baylor, and Vanderbilt, among others: classicsermonindex.com.
