Richard Rodda, Methodist Preacher

Richard Rodda is a name that crops up in a number of other early Methodist preachers’ biographies, as one who encouraged them in their ministries.

Rodda was born in Cornwall in 1743. His introduction to the Methodist came through his older sister. His parents had heard rumors that Methodists were enemies of both Church and State, and so stayed away. But his sister went to hear, and the change in her was so visible, their mother went to hear as well, and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

At the age of 13, Rodda desired to flee the wrath to come, so he applied to Peter Jaco to be admitted into a Methodist Society. Two years later, Rodda found the peace he was looking for in the Lord. [I wonder how many of us would seek that long? Or would know that perhaps, we had been seeking that long? We remember the instant we found peace in Christ-- what about the looking and longing for Him?]

Rodda found himself delivered from disaster and difficulty a number of times-- from falling rocks in a quarry, from near certain death from a horse-fall in group of riders, and from being pressed into the Navy.

Rodda began to preach here and there, and in 1768 became a “traveling preacher,” largely in Cornwall. He experienced the usual mobs it seems Methodist preachers encountered-- throwing rocks and roof tiles; one time having the “dirt” from a kennel smeared in his face; one group brought gunpowder to blow up the preaching-house.

In a letter to John Wesley, as the conclusion to the biography he wrote, he stated:

1. I believe God made the first man holy, harmless and undefiled but... he yielded to the Tempter and and this stripped him of the moral image of God. I believe, also, that all sinned and fell in him.

2. I believe all mankind were in Adam when God gave him the promise of a Savior, and that promise was not only to him, but to his children

3. I believe, with the Church of England, that Christ made on the Cross a perfect and sufficient sacrifice, satisfaction and oblation for all the sins of the whole world, whether original or actual. And that by virtue of this, all men may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth: that God rejects none but those who reject the Spirit of grace.

4. I believe that in order to be saved from the guilt and power of sin, men must repent and believe in Christ

5. I believe repentance to consist in a consciousness of sin, a godly sorrow for it, and turning from it to God. I also believe faith to be the gift of God but the act of man. God gives the power, man uses it.

6. I believe that in order to achieve final salvation, our faith must be productive of good works; that without complete, personal holiness, no man shall see the Lord. This is so fully asserted in the word of God that I am persuaded all the craft of men and all the rage of devils cannot overthrow it.

7. I believe that the Crown of all spiritual blessings is the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This was the substance of his preaching. Amen.