Wesley Corpus

Mon. 8.--We rode to Rough Lee; and found a large, serious, and quiet congregation. There have been no tumults since Mr. White was removed. He was for some years a Popish priest. Then he called himself a Protestant, had the living of Colne. It was his manner first to hire, and then head the mob, when they and he were tolerably drunk. But he drank himself first into a gaol, and then into his grave. In the evening I preached at Heptonstall. An attorney, who happened to be in the town, endeavoured to interrupt ; relating some low, threadbare stories, with a very audible voice. But some of the people cut him ~ short in the midst by carrying him quietly away. Tues. 9.--I preached at six to abundance of people near Ewood; and with an uncommon blessing. Hence we rode to Todmorden. The minister was slowly recovering from a violent fit of a palsy, with which he was struck immediately after he had been preaching a virulent sermon against the Methodists. I preached on the side of a mountain, to a large and earnest congregation, and then went on to Mellar-barn. I preached at six in the town; and I suppose all the inhabitants, young and old, were present. Nor have I often seen so large a congregation so universally and deeply affected. My lodging was not such as I] should have chosen; but what Providence chooses, is always good. My bed was considerably under ground, the room serving both for a bed chamber and a cellar. The closeness was more troublesome at first than the coolness: but I let in a little fresh air, by breaking a pane of paper (put by way of glass) in the window ; and then slept sound till the morning. Fri. 12.--I rode to Bolton. So hot a day as this, I do not remember to have felt in England. ‘The congregation seemed to forget the heat, though the room was like an oven. For it was a comfortable hour: God refreshing many souls with the multitude of peace. Sat. 13. --The house was fuller this evening than the last, while I enforced that gracious invitation, ‘Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.”