Wesley Corpus

There are few, except the harsher, passions of our souls which you did not engage in those late happy moments: but none more than our wonder; our joy itself was not greater than our admiration. That London is the worst place under heaven for preserving a Christian temper any one will immediately think who observes that there can be none where its professed, irreconcilable enemies, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, are more artfully and forcibly recommended. Yet even here you retain a constant sense what manner of spirit we are to be of. In the utmost affluence of whatever the world can afford to chain down your affections to it, the whole tenor of your words and actions shows they are reserved for sublimer objects. Who can be a fitter person than one that knows it by experience to tell me the full force of that glorious rule, 'Set your affections on things above, and not on things of the earth' Is it equivalent to 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and strength' But what is it to love God Is not to love anything the same as habitually to delight in it Is not, then, the purport of both these injunctions this,--that we delight in the Creator more than His creatures; that we take more pleasure in Him than in anything He has made, and rejoice in nothing so much as in serving Him; that, to take Mr. Pascal's expression, while the generality of men use God and enjoy the world, we, on the contrary, only use the world while we enjoy God How pleasingly could I spend many hours .in talking with you on this important subject ! especially if I could hope to repay thereby one mite of the vast debt I owe you, to recall to your mind any hint by pursuing of which you might exalt it to a yet firmer temper. But I submit. By thus cutting my time short, Providence shows me it has more suitable methods of leading you into all truth, and fixing you in all virtue, than the weak endeavors of Your obliged friend, CYRUS. Feb. 12.--I have a thousand things to say, would time permit; but, O believe, I can never say half of what I feel ! Adieu. Mrs. Pendarves replies [2] February 13 [1731].