Wesley Corpus

DEAR MISS ANN,--Time changes thought, especially in youth and amidst variety of company. So that it would be nothing strange if you should forget those for whom you once had a regard; but you need not. Every reasonable affection is intended to last to eternity. And the true affection for our friends is, as Milton says, a scale whereby to heavenly love thou may'st ascend. [Paradise Lost, viii. 589-92.'Love refines/ The thoughts, and heart enlarges: hath his seat/ In reason, and is judicious; is the scale/ By which to heavenly love thou may'st ascend,'] For the present you seem to be in your place, the place which the wisdom of God has assigned you; and the crosses you now meet with, as they are not of your own choosing, will surely work together for good. Your want of more public opportunities may in a good measure be supplied by private exercises. Let no day pass without more or less private prayer, reading, and meditation. And does not God see in secret Does He not now read your heart, and see if it pants for His pure love If so, are not all things ready May you not now find what you never did before Ask Him that loves you, whose nature and whose name is Love!--I am Your affectionate brother. To Thomas Rankin [2] LONDON, January 22, 1767. DEAR TOMMY,--What has more than once troubled me is this. One Assistant was very zealous for one, two, or three years. Afterwards he quite lost his catholic zeal and usefulness. See that this be not your case. Are the people there willing that John Ellis should come into Lincolnshire If they are, let the exchange be made without delay. There is a good work going on in London. But not like that which George Bell and Thomas Maxfield put a stop to. I know not when we shall see an end of the advantage which Satan gained by their means. They made the very name of Perfection stink in the nostrils even of those who loved and honoured it before. And this I told them and others long ago must be a consequence of proceeding in such a manner. I hope you all labour in training up the children and in visiting from house to house. Take care of the rising generation.--I am, dear Tommy, Your affectionate friend and brother.