The Essentials: The Spirit of a Christian: Considering the two grand hindrances that stand in the way of those who genuinely love God, namely, that they don't all think or walk alike, Wesley proposed that fellowship should remain, even thrive, since all may love alike. In other words, here as in his sermon “On Zeal,” Wesley focused on the holy love that is at the heart of it all the goal of all true religion. Put another way, right tempers or dispositions of the heart are crucial to real, proper, scriptural Christianity. With this reality in place, Wesley was willing to extend the hand of Christian fellowship though differences remained in terms of such things as opinions, polity, modes of worship, the sacraments, and extemporaneous prayer. Such generosity of spirit, however, does not represent indifference to all opinions, indifference to modes of worship, or indifference to all congregations. Rejecting the principle that states “the place of our birth fixes the church,” Wesley made generous allowances for the roles of conscience and the right of private judgment, “on which [the] whole Reformation stands.”
