Wesley Corpus

whole bodies at large. In the case before us we mayobserve that, at theveryjuncture when the infidels were making so strong an effort to diffuse their baleful principles in this cele brated seminary of learning, God was pre paring two or three young men to coun teract the evil, and to plant a religious so ciety in the same spot, which extended its beneficial influence farther and wider than it ever entered into the ideas of the little com munity to conceive, and which was in the end the means of reforming the outcasts of mankind throughout the kingdom." When death deprived them of Mr. Morgan, the brothers continued unshaken in their pur poses. They were the bond of union in their selected company, and if one or more of the members deserted them through fear or shame, their own resolution remained inflex ible. They boldly raised the standard against infidelity andvice . indefatigable in acts of cha rity, exercises of devotion, and habits of selfdenial, they passed through good report and evil report, apparently insensible to either. In the year 1731 a meeting was held by the seniors of some of the colleges to stop the progress of their zeal ; and it was publicly rumoured that a pertain Rev. Doctor was about to blow up the " Godly Club" now its most common name. Whether his noble intention was overuled by the interposition of higher powers, or himself ashamed of it, is not known ; but they had no other moles tation than the censure and ridicule of cha racters like his own. But accounts of their ascetic singularities spreading far and wide, their father took a journey to Oxford to ex amine himself whether they might not carry matters too far, and injure their healths and their cause by unnecessary rigour. In a letter to Mrs. Wesley he writes, " I am well repaid formy expense and labour, bythe shiningpiety of our two sons and in which it appears that he did not disapprove of any of their proceedings. This worthy old clergyman died in 1735, and they had the privilege of