Wesley Corpus

Sun. 16.--I preached at Moorfields to about ten thousand, and at Kennington Common to, I believe, near twenty thousand, on those _words of the calmer Jews to St. Paul, ** We desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest; for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against.” At both places I described the real difference between what is generally called Christianity, and the true old Christianity, which, under the new name of Methodism, is now also every where spoken against. Mon. 17.--I preached again at Plaistow, on, “ Blessed are those that mourn.” It pleased God to give us, in that hour, two living: instances of that piercing sense both of the guilt and power of sin, that dread of the wrath of God, and that full conviction of man’s inability either to remove the power, or atone for the guilt, of sin; (called by the world, despair ;) in which properly consist that poverty of spirit, and mourning, which are the gate of Christian blessedness. Tues. 18.--A young woman came to us at Islington, in such an agony as I have seldom seen. Her sorrow and fear were too big for utterance ; so that after a few words, her strength as well as her heart failing, she sunk down to the ground. Only her sighs and her greans ee ees ee es Sept. 1739.] REV. J. WESLEY'S JOURNAL. 155 - showed she was yet alive. We cried unto God in her behalf. We claimed the promises made to the weary and heavy-laden; and he did not cast out our prayer. She saw her Saviour, as it were, crucified before her eyes. She laid hold on him by faith, and her spirit revived. At Mr. B ’s, at six, | was enabled earnestly to call all the weary and heavy-laden; and at Mr. C ’s, at eight, when many roared aloud; some of whom utterly refused to be comforted, till they should feel their souls at rest in the blood of the Lamb, and have his love shed abroad in their hearts.