Wesley Corpus

To Alexander Knox Date: BRISTOL, March 19, 1777. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1777) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR SIR,--If the returns of your disorder are more and more gentle, there is reason to hope it will be at length totally removed. Very probably, if you live to five- or six-and-twenty, your constitution will take a new turn. But it is certainly the design of Him that loves you to heal both body and soul; and possibly He delays the healing of the former that the cure of the latter may keep pace with it. As ' it is a great loss to lose an affliction,' He would not have you lose what you have suffered. I trust it will not be lost, but will be for your profit, that you may be partaker of His holiness. It is a blessing that He has given you that fear which is the beginning of wisdom; and it is a pledge of greater things to come. How soon? Perhaps to-day.... If I could spare time, I would gladly accept of your invitation; but I doubt whether I can get any farther than Dublin. [He spent Oct. 3-13 in Dublin.] Peace be with all your spirits!--I am, my dear Alleck, Yours most affectionately.