Wesley Corpus

To his Nephew Samuel Wesley Date: OTLEY April 29, 1790. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1790) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR SAMMY, -- For some days you have been much upon my mind. I have been pained concerning you, and have been afraid lest I should feel, when it was too late, that I had been wanting in affection to you. For ought I to see you in want of anything and not strive to supply your want What do you want not clothes or books or money. If you did, I should soon supply you. But I fear you want (what you least of all suspect), the greatest thing of all -- religion. I do not mean external religion, but the religion of the heart; the religion which Kempis, Pascal, Fnelon enjoyed: that life of God in the soul of man, the walking with God and having fellowship with the Father and the Son. When you contracted a prejudice in favor of the Church of Rome, I did not regard your embracing such and such opinions (were they right or wrong), but your being cut off from those instructions which you then especially needed. Had you attentively read but a small part of my writing (which Providence recommended to your attention by your near relation to me), or had you so diligently attended my ministry as you ought to have done, you would have known more of that religion than you do now: Christ in you the hope of glory, Christ reigning in your heart and subduing all things to Himself. And I lament that fatal step, your relinquishing those places of worship where alone this religion is inculcated, I care not a rush for your being called a Papist or Protestant. But I am grieved at your being an heathen. Certain it is that the general religion both of Protestants and Catholics is no better than refined heathenism. O Sammy, you are called to something better than this 1 You are called to know and love the God of glory, to live in eternity, to walk in eternity, and to live the life which is hid with Christ in God. Hearken to the advice of one that stands on the edge of eternity.