While traveling through England this summer, Kalena and I made a stop at the old Newman Brothers Coffin Works on Fleet Street in Birmingham. At first glance, a Victorian coffin-fittings factory might seem like an unusual stop for someone interested in Wesleyan history. But standing here helped me picture the world in which one branch of the Wesleyan revival continued to spread.

Newman Brothers moved into this factory in 1894, when Birmingham was one of Britain’s great industrial cities. Workshops and factories filled areas like the Jewellery Quarter, drawing thousands of ordinary working people into a rapidly changing urban world. And into cities like this came the message of holiness.

John Wesley had died more than a century earlier, but the movement he helped begin was still bearing fruit. William Booth had begun his ministry as a Methodist preacher, and Catherine Booth had grown up attending Wesleyan Methodist classes. Their Salvation Army carried into Britain’s streets something recognizably Wesleyan: salvation was available to all, conversion should transform the life, and Christians should pursue holiness while taking the gospel to people others often overlooked.

By 1881, the Salvation Army already had three stations operating in Birmingham. Reports from the period describe crowded evangelistic meetings, conversions, prayer meetings, and gatherings devoted specifically to holiness. At one Birmingham Holiness meeting, approximately 120 people reportedly came forward seeking what the report called “the blessing of a clean heart.”

I love that phrase. It reminds us that the early Salvation Army was not merely a social organization. Feeding the hungry and helping the poor mattered deeply, but William Booth’s ultimate concern was the salvation of souls and the transformation of lives. The Army took the gospel into streets and neighborhoods where many traditional churches struggled to reach.

Standing beside this old factory, I found myself thinking about the men and women who once filled Britain’s industrial cities. They worked long hours in factories and workshops, walked these streets, raised families, experienced poverty and hardship, and eventually faced death. Newman Brothers built a business furnishing their coffins and those of generations that followed.

But only a few streets away, Christians influenced by the Wesleyan revival were proclaiming that death did not have the final word. The story that began with Wesley preaching in fields did not end when Wesley died. It moved into another generation. It entered crowded cities. It took new forms. And through people like William and Catherine Booth, the call to salvation and holiness continued to be heard.

That is one reason I enjoy visiting places like this. Sometimes Wesleyan history is found in a chapel or behind a pulpit. Other times, an old factory helps us understand the world into which that message was preached.

The buildings change. The methods change. But the message remains: Christ still saves, and He still calls His people to holiness.