Wesley Corpus

To Peard Dickinson Date: NEAR STOCKPORT, April 8, 1788. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1788) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR BROTHER, -- If Mr. Bradburn's letter of March 29 had been directed to Birmingham, where I then was, I should have taken coach on Sunday the 3oth and been with you on Monday the 3Ist. I shall not be at Manchester till the 10th instead. But all is well; by that mistake I am much further on my journey. 'Tis pity but the remains of my brother had been deposited with me. Certainly that ground is holy as any in England, and it contains a large quantity of 'bonny dust.' We have all need to stir ourselves up before the Lord and to improve by this providence; and you may improve it much in speaking to the people, as I have done several times. Betsy must accept of my friendship instead of my brother's. -- I am Your affectionate friend and brother. A Printed Notice. MANCHESTER, April 12, 1788. Great are the advantages we have reaped for many years from the continual change of preachers, but this cannot subsist any longer than the places of all the preachers are appointed by one man or body of men. Therefore wherever Trustees are to place and displace the preachers this change, which we call Itinerancy, is at an end. It is for your sakes, not my own, that I wish this may continue, and the appointment of preachers, which now lies upon me, be afterwards executed by the Conference, not the Trustees of any of the Houses. Is it possible that Itinerancy should be continued by any other means This is all the contest, at present, between me and our brethren at Dewsbury.