Wesley Corpus

Here we were under a difficulty again: Not half the people could come in, and the rain forbade my preaching without. But at one (the hour of preaching) the rain stopped, and did not begin again till past two; so the people stood very conveniently in the yard; and many did not care to go away. When I went in, June, 1761.] JOURNAL, 63 they crowded to the door and windows, and stayed till I took horse. At seven I preached at Yarm, and desired one of our brethren to take my place in the morning. Sat. 20.--At noon I applied those words, “Now abide faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.” This evening also it rained at Hutton-Rudby, till seven, the hour of preaching: But God heard the prayer; and from the time I began we had only some scattering drops. After sermon the society alone filled the new preaching-house; so mightily has the word of God prevailed since Alexander Mather laboured here. Sun. 21.--I preached to a larger congregation than in the evening, on, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God!” I then rode to Osmotherley, where the Minister read Prayers seriously, and preached an useful sermon. After service I began in the church-yard: I believe many were wounded and many comforted. After dinner I called on Mr. Adams, who first invited me to Osmotherley. He was reading the strange account of the two Missionaries who have lately made such a figure--in the newspapers. I suppose the whole account is just such another gross imposition upon the public as the man’s gathering the people together to see him go into the quart bottle. “Men seven hundred years old !” And why not seven yards high? He that can believe it, let him believe it. At five I preached at Potto, a mile from Hutton. When I began I was extremely weak; but God renewed my strength, and so applied his word, that it seemed as if every one must believe it. But the Scripture cannot be broken: Some seed will still fall “by the way side,” and some “on stony ground.” Mon. 22.--I spoke, one by one, to the society at Hutton Rudby. They were about eighty in number; of whom near seventy were believers, and sixteen (probably) renewed in love.