Wesley Corpus

To Alexander Knox BRISTOL, March 19, 1777. DEAR SIR,--If the returns of your disorder are more and more gentle, there is reason to hope it will be at length totally removed. Very probably, if you live to five- or six-and-twenty, your constitution will take a new turn. But it is certainly the design of Him that loves you to heal both body and soul; and possibly He delays the healing of the former that the cure of the latter may keep pace with it. As ' it is a great loss to lose an affliction,' He would not have you lose what you have suffered. I trust it will not be lost, but will be for your profit, that you may be partaker of His holiness. It is a blessing that He has given you that fear which is the beginning of wisdom; and it is a pledge of greater things to come. How soon? Perhaps to-day.... If I could spare time, I would gladly accept of your invitation; but I doubt whether I can get any farther than Dublin. [He spent Oct. 3-13 in Dublin.] Peace be with all your spirits!--I am, my dear Alleck, Yours most affectionately. To Mrs. Johnston, Annandale, Lisleen [6] LONDON, March 28, 1777. (Good Friday.) MY DEAR SISTER,--Surely this is a token for good. If we acknowledge God, He will acknowledge us. In the memory of man never was Good Friday observed in London with such solemnity as this has been, in consequence of a message which the Archbishop of Canterbury sent to the Lord Mayor some days since, incited thereto (it is supposed) by an intimation from His Majesty.