Wesley Corpus

I speak as a fool: bear with me. I am dearly satisfied that you have far more faith, more love, and more of the mind which was in Christ than I have. But have you more gifts for the work of God or more fruit of your labor Has God owned you more I would He had a thousand-fold! I pray God that He may. Have you at present more experience of the wisdom of the world or the devices of Satan or of the manner and method wherein it pleases God to counterwork them in this period of His providence Are you sure God would add nothing to you by me beside what He might add to me by you Perhaps when the time is slipped out of your hands, when I am no more seen, you may wish you had not rejected the assistance of even Your affectionate brother. To a Friend [6] TRURO, September 20, 1757. DEAR SIR, -- The longer I am absent from London, and the more I attend the service of the Church in other places, the more I am convinced of the unspeakable advantage which the people called Methodists enjoy: I mean even with regard to pubic worship, particularly on the Lord’s Day. The church where they assemble is not gay or splendid, which might be an hindrance on the one hand; nor sordid or dirty, which might give distaste on the other; but plain as well as clean. The persons who assemble there are not a gay, giddy crowd, who come crafty to see and be seen; nor a company of goodly, formal, outside Christians, whose religion lies in a dull round of duties; but a people most of whom do, and the rest earnestly seek to, worship God in spirit and in truth. Accordingly they do not spend their time there in bowing and courtesying, or in staring about them, but in looking upward and looking inward, in hearkening to the voice of God, and pouring out their hearts before Him.