Wesley Corpus

Tues. 16.--I preached at five, on Rom. iii, 22, to a large congregation, part of whom had sat up all night, for fear they should not wake in the morning. Many of them, I found, either were, or had been, Papists. O how wise are the ways of God! How am I brought, without any care or thought of mine, into the centre of the Papists in Yorkshire! O that God would arise and maintain his own cause; and all the idols let him utterly abolish! After sermon an elderly woman asked me abruptly, “ Dost thou think water baptism an ordinance of Christ ?” I said, What saith Peter? ‘* Who can forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost even as we?” I spoke but little more, before she cried out, “’Tis right! “Tis nght! I will be baptized.” And so she was, the same hour. About eight in the evening I reached Sykehouse, and preached to a little company there. Wednesday, 1'7.--I trode by Epworth to Grimsby. The north-east wind was full in our face, and exceeding sharp. I began preaching before eight; but to such a congregation as I had not lately seen; so stupidly rude and noisy, encouraged thereto by their fore- speaker, a drunken alehouse keeper. I singled him out, and fastened upon him, till he chose to withdraw. The rest were soon calmed, and behaved very quietly till the service was ended. Thur. 18.--In the afternoon I rode to Hainton. Mr. Clark, the minister of Barksworth, a mile from thence, having several times sent word he should be glad to see me, I went to his house, and spent an agreeable hour with an open-hearted, friendly man, not strongly prepossessed, and, I believe, truly desirous to know the whole will of God.