Wesley Corpus

Letters 1774

AuthorJohn Wesley
Typeletter
YearNone
Passage IDjw-letters-1774-053
Words377
Pneumatology Universal Redemption Works of Mercy
I know not whether any method of reading would be more profitable than to read a chapter of the Old Testament with the Notes every morning; and every evening a chapter, or at least a section, in the New Testament. At other times of the day I advise you to read our works regularly from the beginning; marking any tract or part of a tract which you find most useful, that you may make it matter of meditation. Some of the most useful to believers are Mr. Law's tracts, the Lives of Mr. Brainerd, De Renty, and Thomas Walsh, the tracts translated from the French, and those upon Christian Perfection. I am glad you have been with our dear sister Crosby. Converse as much as you can with those of her spirit; they are the excellent ones of the earth. You must not give place--no, not for a day--to inactivity. Nothing is more apt to grow upon the soul; the less you speak or act for God the less you may. If elder persons do not speak, you are called, like Elihu, to supply this lack of service. Whether you are young or old is not material: speak, and spare not! Redeem the time! Be fervent in spirit! Buy up every opportunity; and be always a comfort to Yours affectionately. To the Authors of the 'Monthly Review' [30] REIGATE, November 30, 1774. GENTLEMEN,--I can easily believe what your correspondent affirms (Review, October 1774), that there are some slave-holders who have a little humanity left, and that the Georgian laws sell the blood of one slave only to each master, and prescribe the instruments wherewith he is to torture the rest. What is still the general spirit of American slave-holders is observed in a letter from Philadelphia now before me. As a farther influence of the inhumanity with which the poor Negroes are treated, I will add two advertisements published in the public papers, one of Virginia, the other of North Carolina:-- From the Williamsburg Gazette 'Run away on the 10th instant, a lusty Negro, named Bob---.The said fellow is outlawed, and I will give ten pounds reward for his head severed from his body, and forty shillings if brought alive.' From one of the North Carolina newspapers.