Wesley Corpus

BALLINROBE, May 19, 1775. DEAR TOMMY,--That letters travel very slow from us to America is a great inconvenience. But it is a still greater that they travel so uncertainly; sometimes reaching you too late, sometimes not at all. I doubt not but Brother Asbury and you will part friends: I shall hope to see him at the Conference. He is quite an upright man. I apprehend he will go through his work more cheerfully when he is within a little distance from me. We must speak the plain truth wherever we are, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. And among our Societies we must enforce our Rules with all mildness and steadiness. At first this must appear strange to those who are as bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke. But after a time all that desire to be real Christians see the advantage of it. I am afraid Mr. B--- is a weak brother, a little enlightened in his understanding, and having a kind of faith. But I would rather (of the two) be in the case of poor T--- R--- than of him. I think there is more probability of his being a real Christian than of the other's. Never was there a time when it was more necessary for all that fear God, both in England and in America, to stir up the gift of God that is in them and wrestle with God in mighty prayer. In all the other judgments of God the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness. When a land is visited with famine or plague or earthquake, the people commonly see and acknowledge the hand of God. But wherever war breaks out, God is forgotten, if He be not set at open defiance. What a glorious work of God was at Cambuslang and Kilsyth from 1740 to 1744! But the war that followed tore it all up by the roots and left scarce any trace of it behind; insomuch that when I diligently inquired a few years after, I could not find one that retained the life of God!--I am, my dear Tommy, Your affectionate friend and brother. To Mary Bosanquet