Wesley Corpus

To Thomas Rankin Date: LONDON, October 20, 1775. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1775) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR TOMMY,--The account given in our newspapers of my death was not wholly without foundation; for I was only not dead, my pulse being quite gone and 'the wheel at the cistern without motion.' But then our Lord stepped in, and The fever owned His touch, and fled. My strength returned by swift degrees; and I am now at least as well as before my illness. In the country places I believe you will have the largest harvest, where they know little and talk little about politics. Their hearts are engaged with something better, and they let the dead bury their dead. I am glad you are going into North Carolina; and why not into South Carolina too I apprehend those provinces would bear much fruit, as most parts of them are fresh, unbroken ground: And as the people are farther removed from the din of war, they may be more susceptible of the gospel of peace. A paper was sent to me lately, occasioned by the troubles in America; but it would not do good. It is abundantly too tart; and nothing of that kind will be of service now. All parties are already too much sharpened against each other; we must pour water, not oil, into the flame. I had written a little tract upon the subject before I knew the American ports were shut up. [A Calm Address to our American Colonies. ' The ports being just then shut up by the Americans, I could not send it abroad, as I designed. However, it was not lost; within a few months, fifty or perhaps an hundred thousand copies, in newspapers and otherwise, were dispersed throughout Great Britain and Ireland.’ See Green’s Bibliography, No. 305.] I think there is not one sharp word therein; I did not design there should. However, many are excessively angry, and would willingly burn me and it together. Indeed, it is provoking; I suppose above forty thousand of them have been printed in three weeks, and still the demand for them is as great as ever.