Wesley Corpus

“1 will show you him that was a lion till then, and is now a lamb; him that was a drunkard, and is now exemplarily sober; the whoremonger that was, who now abhors the very ‘ garment spotted by the flesh.’ These are my living arguments for what I assert, viz. ‘That God does now, as aforetime, give remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, even to us and to our children; yea, and that always suddenly, as far as I have known, and often in dreams or in the visions of God.’ If it be not so, I am found a false witness before God. For these things I do, and by his grace will, testify.” Perhaps it might be because of the hardness of our hearts, unready to receive any thing unless we see it with our eyes and hear it with our ears, that God, in tender condescension to our weakness, suffered so many outward signs of the very time when he wrought this inward change to be continually seen and heard among us.‘ But although they saw “signs and wonders,” (for so I must term them,) yet many would not believe. They could not indeed deny the facts; but they could explain them away. Some said, ‘“’These were purely natural effects ; the people fainted away only because of the heat and closeness of the rooms.” And others were “ sure it was all a cheat: they might help it if they would. Else why were these things only in their private societies: why were they not done in the face of the sun?” To-day, Monday, 21, our Lord answered for himself. For while I was enforcing these words, “ Be still and know that I am God,” he began to make bare his arm, not in a close room, neither in private, but in the open air, and before more than two thousand witnesses. One, and another, and another‘was struck to the earth ; exceedingly trembling at the presence of his power. Others cried, with a loud and bitter cry, “* What must we do to be saved?” And in less than an hour, seven persons, wholly unknown to me till that time, were rejoicing, and singing, and with all their might giving thanks to the God of their salvation.