Wesley Corpus

The congregation was waiting; so I began without delay, explaining to them the righteousness of faith. A man had need to be all fire, who comes into these parts, where almost every one is cold as ice: Yet God is able to warm their hearts, and make rivers run in the dry places. Sun. 28.--I preached once more in W church; but it was hard work. Mr. H. read the Prayers (not as he did once, with such fervour and solemnity as struck almost every hearer, but) like one reading an old song, in a cold, dry, careless manner; and there was no singing at all. O what life was here once | But now there is not one spark left. Thence I rode to Cardiff, and found the society in as ruinous a condition as the Castle. The same poison of Mysticism has well-nigh extinguished the last spark of life here also. I preached in the Town-Hall, on, “Now God commandeth all men every where to repent.” There was a little shaking among the dry bones; possibly some of them may yet “come together and live.” Mon. 29.--At noon I preached again at Llandaff, and in the evening at Aberthaw. I found the most life in this congregation that I have found any where in Glamorganshire. We lodged at F Castle; so agreeable once; but how is the scene changed ! How dull and unlovely is every place where there is nothing of God! Tues. 30.--I preached in the Castle at Cardiff, and endeavoured to lift up the hands that hung down. A few seemed to awake, and shake themselves from the dust: Let these go on, and more will follow. I came to Chepstow, Wednesday, 31, just at noon, and began preaching immediately at Mr. Cheek’s door. The sun shone full in my face, extremely hot; but in two or three minutes the clouds covered it. The congregation was large, and behaved 146 REv. J. wesley’s [Sept. 1763. well; perhaps some may be “doers of the word.” When we went into the boat at the Old-Passage, it was a dead calm; but the wind sprung up in a few minutes, so that we reached Bristol in good time. Thur. SEPTEMBER 1.--I began expounding a second time, after an interval of above twenty years, the first Epistle of St. John.