Wesley Corpus

To Alexander Knox Date: COLERAINE, June 8, 1785. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1785) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR ALLECK, - Having now deeply considered your case, I send you my matured thoughts; which I beg you and Mrs. Knox impartially to consider in the presence of God. But beware you do not fix your judgment before you hear the cause; otherwise I shall lose my labor, and you may lose your life, if not your soul. You say: 'The reason why I do not go out is this, I am afraid of falling in the street; and I do not attend the church or the preaching-house for fear I should fall down there and disturb the congregation.' This is the clear state of the case. The question is, then, Is this reason sufficient, or is it not I am fully persuaded it is not For, (1) you are by no means sure that you shall fall down in the church or in the congregation. You have great reason to hope you shall not; although I should not wonder if your fits were now both more frequent and more severe than they are. But (2) Does not common sense teach us e malls minimum Now, I insist upon it that your falling in the street or the congregation once every month is a less evil than the shutting yourself up: so that - were it pronouncedly a voice from heaven, 'Either shut thyself up, or endure this shame once a month, or even once a week; take thy choice' - it would be wisest to choose the latter, for it is incomparably the less evil of the two. It is indisputably plain to every impartial person that, by thus cooping yourself up, you hurt your body; by want of air and exercise you weaken it continually. I wonder you have not fits every day. And you hurt your soul by neglecting the ordinances of God, which you have no authority to do unless you were sick in bed.