Wesley Corpus

MY DEAR SISTER,--You oblige me much by speaking so freely. What an admirable teacher is experience! You have great reason to praise God for what He has taught you hereby, and to expect that He will teach you all things. But, whatever you find now, beware you do not deny what you had once received: I do not say 'a divine assurance that you should never sin or sustain any spiritual loss.' I know not that ever you received this. But you certainly were saved from sin, and that as clearly and in as high a degree as ever Sally Ryan [See letter of Oct. 12, 1764.] was. And if you have sustained any loss in this, believe and be made whole. I never doubted but [Miss Dale] would recover her strength, though she has long walked in a thorny way. A general temptation now is the denying what God had wrought. Guard all whom you converse with from this, and from fancying great grace can be preserved without great watchfulness and self-denial.--I am Your affectionate brother. To Miss March BRISTOL, October 13, 1765. A year or two ago you was pretty clear of enthusiasm: I hope you are so still. But nothing under heaven is more catching, especially when it is found in those we love; and, above all, when it is in those whom we cannot but believe to be sound of understanding in most instances, and to have received larger measures of the grace of God than we have ourselves.