Wesley Corpus

To Ebenezer Blackwell NEWRY, April 26, 1760, Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1760) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR SIR,--I hope your lameness is now at an end, but not the benefit you have reaped from it. May we not in every trial, great or small, observe the hand of God And does He send any sooner than we want it or longer than we want it I found the inflammation which I had in my eyes last month [The inflammation began at Warrington, and 'was much increased by riding forty miles with a strong and cold wind exactly in my face' to Chester. See Journal, iv. 373] came just in the right time. The danger is that anything of this kind should pass over before the design of it is answered. Whether Miss Freeman [She went with him in Dublin to see the French prisoners sent from Carrickfergus. See Journal, iv. 377; and letter of May 28, 1757.] should make use of Lough Neagh, or Lough Leighs (forty miles nearer Dublin), I suppose she is not yet able to determine till I can send her some farther information. And that I cannot do to my own satisfaction till I am upon the spot; for though Lough Neagh is scarce fifteen miles from hence, yet I can hardly find any one here who knows any more of the circumstances of it than if it lay in the East Indies. Hitherto I have had an extremely prosperous journey. And all the fields are white to the harvest. But that the labourers are few is not the only hindrance to the gathering it in effectually. Of those few, some are careless, some heavy and dull, scarce one of the spirit of Thomas Walsh. The nearest to it is Mr. Morgan [James Morgan. See letters of Sept. 2, 1758, and June 23, 1760.]; but his body too sinks under him, and probably will not last long. In a few days I expect to be at Carrickfergus, [See next letter.] and to have from those on whose word I can depend a full account of that celebrated campaign. I believe it will be of use to the whole kingdom. Probably the Government will at last awake and be a little better prepared against the next encounter.