Wesley Corpus

To Hester Ann Roe Date: LONDON, December 9, 1781. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1781) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR HETTY, -- We may easily account for those notices which we frequently receive, either sleeping or waking, upon the scriptural supposition that ‘He giveth His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways.’ How easy is it for them, who have at all times so ready an access to our souls, to impart to us whatever may be a means of increasing our holiness or our happiness! So that we may well say with pious Bishop Ken, O may Thy angels, while we sleep, Around our beds their vigils keep, Their love angelical instill, Stop every avenue of ill! Without needing to use any other arguments, you have a clear proof in your own experience that our blessed Lord is both able and willing to give us always what He gives once; that there is no necessity of ever losing what we receive in the moment of justification or sanctification. But it is His will that all the light and love which we then receive should increase more and more unto the perfect day. If you are employed to assist the children that are brought to the birth, that groan either for the first or the pure love, happy are you l But this is not all your work. No, my Hetty; you are likewise to watch over the new-born babes. Although they have much love, they have not yet either much light or much strength; so that they never had more need of your assistance, that they may neither be turned out of the way nor hindered in running the race that is set before them. I should not have been willing that Miss Bosanquet should have been joined to any other person than Mr. Fletcher; but I trust she may be as useful with him as she was before. [See letter of Dec, 1.]