Wesley Corpus

in the House before. Friday, 27. At nine I preached in the church, at Swinfleet, filled from end to end. About eleven I preached at Crowle, to a large congregation ; and I am now in hope that there will be a good harvest here also, seeing the almost perpetual jars are now at an end. Thence I came once more (perhaps for the last time) to Epworth ; where, by the prudence and diligence of T. Tattershall, the people have now forgot their feuds, and are at unity with each other. Sat. 28. I this day enter onmy eighty-fifth year : And what cause have I to praise God, as for a thousand spiritual blessings, so for bodily blessings also ! How little have I suffered yet by " the rush of numerous years ! " It is true, I am not so agile as I was in times past. I donot run or walk so fast as I did ; my sight is a little decayed ; my left eye is grown dim, and hardly serves me to read; I have daily some pain inthe ball of my right eye, as also in my right temple, (occasioned by a blow received some months since,) and inmy right shoulder and arm, which I impute partlyto a sprain, and partly to the rheumatism. I find likewise somedecay inmy memory, with regard to names and things lately past ; but not at all with regard to what I have read or heard, twenty, forty, or sixty years ago ; neither do I find any decay in my hearing, smell, taste, or appetite ; (though Iwant but a third part of the food I did once ; ) nor do I feel any such thing as weariness, either in travelling or preach- ing: And I am not conscious of any decay in writing sermons ; which I do as readily, and I believe as correctly, as ever. To what cause can I impute this, that I am as I am ? First, doubtless, to the power of God, fitting me for the work to which I amcalled, as long as He pleases to continue me therein ; and, next, subordinately to this, to the prayers of his children. May we not impute it, as inferior means, 1. To my constant exercise and change of air ?