Wesley Corpus

To Robert Carr Brackenbury Date: TOWCESTER, November 19, 1781. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1781) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR SIR, -- I rejoice to hear that your health is so well re-established, and am in hopes it will continue. Your preaching frequently will be no hindrance, but rather a furtherance to it, provided you have the resolution always to observe the Methodist rule of concluding the service within the hour. The want of observing this has many times hurt you; and we must not offer murder for sacrifice. We are not at liberty to impair our own health in hopes of doing good to others. A gentleman whose leg had been ill for several years and had several running sores in it was advised by an old clergyman to discard his physicians and surgeons, and to follow this simple prescription, ‘Take a fillet of soft Welsh flannel four inches broad and four yards long, let it be rolled as tight as you can bear it over your leg from the knee to the sole of the foot, and keep it on day and night without any alteration.’ He wore this for a month, and has been perfectly well ever since. If she is not well already, I have little doubt but the same method would cure Mrs. Brackenbury. [See letters of Aug. 12, 1781, and March 9, 1782, to him.] I trust she and you are both pressing on to the mark and strengthening each other's hands in God. -- I am, dear sir, Your affectionate friend and brother.