Wesley Corpus

To John Valton Date: LONDON, January 18, 1782. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1782) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR BROTHER, -- I have received the first two sheets of your Life. Be not afraid of writing too much; I can easily leave out what can be spared. It pleased God to lead John Haime and you a long way through the wilderness. Others He leads through a shorter and smoother way; and yet to the same point: for we must not imagine that such a degree of suffering is necessary to any degree of holiness. In this God does certainly act as a Sovereign; giving what He pleases, and by what means He pleases. I believe the holiest man that ever lived was the Apostle John; yet he seems to have suffered very little. You should take care never to write long at a time, and always to write standing; never on any account leaning on your stomach. God gives me just the strength I had thirty years ago. I cannot allow John Sellars [See letter of Jan. 7.] to be any longer a leader; and if he will lead the class, whether I will or no, I require you to put him out of our Society. If twenty of his class will leave the Society too, they must. The first loss is the best. Better forty members should be lost than our discipline lost. They are no Methodists that will bear no restraints. Explain this at large to the Society. -- I am Your affectionate friend and brother.