Wesley Corpus

leisure, hurried away to me, and received them with all the genuine indi cations of passionate gratitude. All the books were very acceptable ; but none more so than the psalms and hymns, which enabled them to gratify their peculiar taste for psalmody. Sundry of them lodged all night in my kitchen; and sometimes when I have awaked at two or three in the morning, a torrent of sacred psalmody has poured into my chamber In this exercise some of them spend the whole night. “The good effects of this charity are already apparent. It convinces the Heathen, that however careless about religion the generality of the white people are, yet there are some who think it a matter of importance. It has excited some of their masters to emulation; and they are ashamed. that strangers on the other side the Atlantic ocean, should be at such pains to teach their domestics, while themselves are negligent about it. Such of the negroes as can read already, are evidently improving in knowledge. It has excited others to learn to read: for as I give books to none but such as can read, they consider them as a reward for their industry. And I am told, that in almost every house in my congregation, and in many other places, they spend every leisure hour in endeavouring to learn. Many do this from a sincere desire to know the will of God; and if some should do it from the meaner principle of vanity or curiosity, yet I cannot but rejoice, that it renders them the more capable of receiving instruction. To all this I may add, that the very distributing these books gives me an opportunity of speaking seriously, and with particular application, to many who would not otherwise come in my way. “There are thousands of, negroes in this colony who still continue. in the grossest ignorance, and are as rank Pagans now, as they were in the wilds of Africa. Not a few of these are within the bounds of my congre- gation. Butall are not of this character. Upon some my ministry of late --