Wesley Corpus

To Nathanael Price Date: BRISTOL, December 6, 1739. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1739) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR BROTHER, -- Our sincere thanks attend you for your seasonable assistance. I have writ to our dear brother Howell Harris, and sent him a short account of our design which we are carrying on in Kingswood also: which perhaps may be agreeable to them who are with you too; for which reason I have sent you a copy of it, namely :-- ‘Few persons have lived long in the West of England who have not heard of the colliers of Kingswood: a people famous, from the beginning hitherto, for neither fearing God nor regarding man; so ignorant of the things of God that they could only be compared to the beasts that perish; and therefore utterly without desire of instruction, as well as without the means of it. ‘To this people Mr. Whitefield last spring began to preach the gospel of Christ; and as there were thousands of them who went to no place of public worship, he went out into their own wilderness “to seek and to save that which was lost.” When he was called away, others went “into the highways and hedges to compel them to come in.” And by the grace of God their labor was not in vain. The scene was entirely changed. Kingswood does not now, as a year ago, resound with cursing and blasphemy. It is no longer the seat of drunkenness, uncleanness, and all idle diversions that lead thereto. It is no longer filled with wars and rightings, with clamor and bitterness, with strife and envying. Peace and love are now there: the people in general are become mild, gentle, and easy to be entreated; they do not cry, neither strive, and hardly is their voice heard in the streets, or indeed in their own wood, unless when they are at their usual evening diversions, singing praise unto God their Savior.