Wesley Corpus

My ill success, as they call it, seems to be what has frightened every one away from a falling house. On Sunday I was considering the matter a little more nearly; and imagined that all the ill consequences of my singularity were reducible to three--diminution of fortune, loss of friends and of reputation. As to my fortune, I well know, though perhaps others do not, that I could not have borne a larger than I have; and as for that most plausible excuse for desiring it, ' While I have so little, I cannot do the good I would,' I ask, Can you do the good God would have you do It is enough ! Look no farther. For friends, they were either trifling or serious: if triflers, fare them well -- a noble escape; if serious, those who are more serious are left, whom the others would rather have opposed than forwarded in the service they have done and still do us. If it be said, ' But these may leave you too; for they are no firmer than the others were ': first, I doubt that fact; but, next, suppose they should, we hope then they would only teach us a nobler and harder lesson than they have done hitherto--' It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man.' And as for reputation, though it be a glorious instrument of advancing our Master's service, yet there is a better than that--a clean heart, a single eye, a soul full of God! A fair exchange, if by the loss of reputation we can purchase the lowest degree of purity of heart 1 We beg my mother and you would not cease to work together with us, that, whatever we lose, we may gain this; and that, having tasted of this good gift, we may count all things else but dung and dross in comparison of it.