Happy birthday, John Wesley!  The founder of Methodism was form on June 28, 1703.  (Technically it was June 17, but then England had to go and switch to the Gregorian calendar when John was 49, so…)  His dear diary kept great records of his birthday thoughts, mostly that he was incredibly healthy until close to the end of his life.  Wesley always attributed his good health to the grace of God, and then expressed that the means of his healthiness were waking up and preaching super early, traveling more than most on the planet, and a careful diet (there’s a great article by Rob Williams at this link).  Wesley had been a vegetarian since his twenties, and firmly believed that this kept him in vital health, swearing that he was never ill again since starting this diet.  George Whitefield (the character who gets the wrong cake in this comic) was a lifelong frenemy of John and Charles Wesley.  Without George, the Methodist movement would have never been as successful as it was.  However, Whitefield and the Wesley’s parted ways over the issue of free grace (Arminianism, the position of the Wesley’s) and eternal predestination (Calvinism, the position of Whitefield).  I’ve always had Whitefield and the Wesley’s have a weird balance of love/hate in my comics (see the By George series, an origin of their relationship), but it should be known that at the end of his life, John Wesley only said kind things about George Whitefield.

This week’s comic is NSFCB (Not Safe For Church Bulletin), so all you guys out there who put Wesley Bros in your newsletters may want to skip this week!  After a week of 24/7 missions in the 101 degree NC heat with High Schoolers, this was about the only gag that my brain had in it!  I didn’t have any of my art supplies with me, so this is really more of a sketch, but it was fun killing off John Wesley with a meat cake…  He’ll be back next week, no worries.