Wesley Corpus

He led me through the Mayoralty-House,_a very noble and beautiful structure. The dining-room and the ball-room are magnificent, and shame the Mansion-House in London by their situation; commanding the whole river, the fruitful hills on every side, and the meadows running between them. He was then so good as to walk with me quite through the city to the House of Industry, and to go with me through all the apartments; which are quite sweet and commodious. An hundred and ninety-two poor are now lodged therein; and the master (a pious man, and a mem ber of our society) watches over them, reads with them, and prays with them, as if they were his own children. Sun. 13.--We had a very comfortable opportunity at eight in Cork. At three Mr. Broadbent preached on the parade. At five (as we removed the benches, and stowed the people close together) the Room contained most of the people; and I took a solemn leave of them, after closely applying our Lord’s question, “Do ye now believe?” Mon. 14.--We went to Kilfinnan, about twenty Irish miles (so I compute) from Mallow. I preached in the Court-House, about seven, to a large and serious audience; and again at five in the morning, Tuesday, 15. We then went on, through a delightful country, to Limerick. Here were always an affec tionate people; but I never found them so much so as now. It May, 1787.] JOURNAL, 375 was too cold in the evening to stand abroad; so we squeezed as many as possible into the preaching-house. I preached on, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” Many here once experienced this ; but few, if any, retain it now ! Wed. 16.--The congregation at five filled the House almost as well as it was filled in the evening. Finding a remarkable deadness, I inquired what were the reasons of it; and found, 1. There had been, for several months, a deep misunderstanding between the Preachers and the chief of the society. Hence, on the one hand, the Preachers had little life or spirit to preach; and, on the other, the congregation dwindled away. 2. Many had left off meeting their bands, and many others seldom met their classes. 3. Prayer-meetings were entirely given up. What wonder if all the people were grown dead as stones?