Wesley Corpus

To Kitty Warren Date: SUNDERLAND, June 8, 1785. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1786) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR SISTER, - I am glad our brethren are aware, that bold, bad man who has bid adieu both to conscience and shame. Their wisdom is now not to think of him or talk of him at all. I am afraid he would turn Calvinist, Turk, or anything for food and idleness. Mr. Valton has not been able to preach in two years so much as he used to do in eight or ten months. Every year I have many applications for the continuance of profitable preachers more than two years in a circuit. I have had several such within these two or three months: as well as the continence of two preachers in the same circuit. But I dare not comply. I advise Mr. Cole [The second preacher in the Pembroke Circuit. He remained there Assistant at the next Conference.] to instruct the next preachers thoroughly in the nature of the case, and to encourage them to persist in the whole Methodist discipline. I hope you are not weary of well-doing, and that you will never bury your talent in the earth. Your labor has not been in vain, [See letter of July 31, 1782.] and in due time you will reap if you faint not. It is always a pleasure to me to see you, and I love to converse with you. But sometimes it has been a concern to me that I could see you so seldom. There is something in your spirit that is exceedingly agreeable to me. I find in you sprightliness and sweetness joined together. May you be filled, my dear Kitty, with the whole fruit of the Spirit! This is the constant wish of Yours most affectionately.