“Our brethren in America call aloud for help. Who will go?” John Wesley asked a gathering of English Methodists. Francis Asbury (1745-1816), a twenty-six-year-old itinerant preacher, answered the call. He said goodbye to his parents and set sail for America. He kept a meticulous journal of his thoughts and travels. He recorded this entry while crossing the Atlantic, “Whither am I going? To the New World. What to do? To gain honor? No, if I am honest with myself. To gain money? No, I am going to live to God and to bring others to do so.”
Francis arrived in Philadelphia in late fall of 1771 and set off on horseback as a circuit riding evangelist. And kept right on going for forty-five years. It is estimated that he rode a quarter of a million miles, crossed the Allegheny Mountains sixty times and preached sixteen thousand sermons. His only traveling companions were his horses. First, there was Little Jane, next an ex-racehorse named Fox and finally Spark. It is no wonder that he is seated on a horse in a Washington, DC statue, his left hand holding the reins and his right hand clutching a Bible. At the base of the statue are the words, “The Prophet of the Long Road.” He likely had personal acquaintances with more people in America than anyone in his day. He was so well known that mail addressed to “Bishop Asbury, United States of America” was delivered to him. While he was not considered a great preacher, Francis had a special ability to connect with ordinary people. Today, we might classify him as a workaholic. Or perhaps he was totally committed. He wrote, “My desire is to live more to God today than yesterday and to be more holy this day than the last.”
In the early part of his Journal, as he set sail for America, he wrote the following prayer. His words about contentment are instructive for us to ponder: