02 To His Mother
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | letter |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-letter-1727-02-to-his-mother-003 |
| Words | 374 |
All of these, and all I see,
Should be sung, and sung by me:
These praise their Maker as they can,
But want and ask the tongue of man. [Parnell's A Hymn to Contentment; where the second line reads ' To light the world and give the day.]
The text of that sermon I preached on the Sunday following Mr. Griffiths's death was, ' Now he is dead, wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.' [See previous letter.] I never gave more reason to suspect my doctrine did not agree with my practice; for a sickness and pain in my stomach, attended with a violent looseness, which seized me the day he was buried, altered me so much in three days, and made me look so pale and thin, that those who saw me could not but observe it.
A letter from my sister Emly, my brother tells me, was brought to my chamber the other day; but wherever the fellow laid it, I have not been able to set eyes upon it from that time to this. I am full of business; but have found a way to write without taking any time from that. 'Tis but rising an hour sooner in a morning and going into company an hour later in 'the evening; both which may be done without any inconvenience. [For an account of his early rising. see the sermon on Redeeming' the Time in Works, vii. 69.] My brother has got the other side away from me. -- I am
Your affectionate, dutiful Son.
I return you thanks for your thoughts on Zeal, and my sister Emly for hers on--I know not what; however, I am persuaded they were very good. My love attends my other sisters. I should have said brother Charles' too; for now he has a live manhood. [There is a tear in the letter which makes the last two words difficult to decipher. ' Live manhood ' seems to be the expression. Charles was now nineteen. He had been elected to Christ Church in April 1726, and was now with his brother, no longer a schoolboy, but enjoying his live ‘manhood.’]