Wesley Corpus

To his Niece Sarah Wesley Date: NEAR LEEDS, July 17, 1781. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1781) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR SALLY, -- Although I did not know what your reason was, I took it for granted you had a reason for not writing. Therefore I did not blame you or love you the less, believing you would write when it was convenient. Without an endeavor to please God and to give up our own will, we never shall attain His favor. But till we have attained it, till we have the Spirit of adoption, we cannot actually give up our own will to Him. Shall I tell you freely what I judge to be the grand hindrance to your attaining it -- yea, to your attaining more health both of body and mind than you have ever had, or at least for a long season I believe it is (what very few people are aware of) intemperance in sleep. All are intemperate in sleep who sleep more than nature requires; and how much it does require is easily known. There is, indeed, no universal rule, none that will suit all constitutions. But after all the observations and experience I have been able to make for upwards of fifty years, I am fully persuaded that men in general need between six and seven hours’ sleep in four-and-twenty; and women in general a little more--namely, between seven and eight. But what ill consequence is there of lying longer in bed -- suppose nine hours in four-and-twenty 1. It hurts the body. Whether you sleep or no (and, indeed, it commonly prevents sound sleep), it as it were soddens and parboils the flesh, and sows the seeds of numerous diseases; of all nervous diseases in particular, as weakness, faintness, lowness of spirits, nervous headaches, and consequently weakness of sight, sometimes terminating in total blindness. 2. It hurts the mind, it weakens the understanding. It blunts the imagination. It weakens the memory. It dulls all the nobler affections. It takes off the edge of the soul, impairs its vigour and firmness, and infuses a wrong softness, quite inconsistent with the character of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It grieves the Holy Spirit of God, and prevents, or at least lessens, those blessed influences which tend to make you not almost but altogether a Christian.