Wesley Corpus

explained “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” -- And it was high time; for I soon found the spirit of delusion was gone abroad here also; and some began to boast, that Christ had “ made them free,” who were still the “servants of sin.” In the evening 1 preached on that bold assertion of St. John, (indeed of all who have the true Spirit of adoption,) “ We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Fri. 18.--I rode forward for Newcastle. We inquired at Poplington, a little town three miles beyond York, and hearing there was no other town near, thought it best to call there. ‘A Bible lying in the window, my fellow traveller asked the woman of the house, if she read that book. She said, “Sir, I can’t read; the worse is my luck. But that great girl is a rare scholar; and yet she cares not if she ever looks in a book ;--she minds nought but play.” I began soon after to speak to our landlord, while the old woman drew closer and closer to me. The girl spun on; but all on a sudden she stopped her wheel, burst out into tears, and, with all that were in the house, so devoured our words, that we scarce knew how to go away. In the evening we came to Boroughbridge, and Saturday, 19, to Newcastle. Sun. 20.--I went on in expounding the Acts of the Apostles, and St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In the following week I diligently inquired, who they were that did not walk according to the Gospel. In consequence of which I was obliged to put away above fifty persons. There remained above eight hundred in the society. Sat. 26.--I visited those that were sick. One of these had kept her room for many months, so that she had never heard the voice or seen the face of any _preacher of this way : but God had taught her in the school of afiliction. She gave a plain and distinct account of the manner wherein she received a sense of her acceptance with God, more than a year before ; and of a fuller manifestation of his love, of which she never after doubted for a moment.