Wesley Corpus

Sun. 24.--We had two very useful sermons at St. Thomas’s churcn ; the one, on counting the cost, before we begin to build; the other, on, « Be ye angry, and sin not.” And both of them were exactly suitable to the present case of many in the congregation. The upper part of the high spire of the church was blown down in the late storm. . The stones, being bound together by strong iron cramps, hung waving in the air for some time. ‘Then they broke through roof, gallery, pews, and pavement, and made a deep dint in the ground. Mon. 25.--I walked to the infirmary; standing on a hill, at the north end of the town. The seamen’s hospital is joined to it, on each side, by semicircular piazzas. All is extremely clean and neat, at least equal to any thing in London. The old seamen have smaller or larger allowance, according to their families ; so that nothing is wanting 626 REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [ May, 1757. to make their lives easy and comfortable--but the love of God. 1 aftere ward spent an hour with Mr. Peter Whitefield, a man of strong understanding and various learning. His “ Dissertation in Defence of the Hebrew Points” (which he sent me the next morning) is far more satisfactory than any thing which I ever heard or read upon the subject. Thur. 28.--I talked with one who, by the advice of his pastor, had, very calmly and deliberately, beat his wife with a large stick, till she was black and blue, almost from head to foot. And he insisted, it was his duty so to do, because she was surly and ill-natured; and tnat he was full of faith all the time he was doing it, and had been so ever | since. Sat. 30.--I took a view of the free school, a truly noble benefaction. Here seventy boys and thirty girls are entirely provided for. The building forms three sides of a square, and is rather elegant than magnificent. The children are taught to work, in their several ways, as well as to read and write. The school, the dining rooms, and the lodgings, are all plain and clean. The whole was the gift of one man, Mr. Blundell, a merchant of Liverpool.