Wesley Corpus

The trials which you have lately undergone were all instances of the goodness of God, who permitted them merely for your profit, that you might be the more largely the partaker of His holiness. You know our blessed Lord Himself as man ‘learned obedience by the things that He suffered’; and the last lesson which He learned upon earth was that ‘Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.’ Never imagine, my dear friend, that your letters to me can be too frequent or too long -- I may add, or too free. Nothing endears you to me so much as your artless simplicity. I beg you would always write just what you feel without disguise, without reserve. Your heart seems to be just as my heart. I cannot tell that I ever before felt so close an attachment to a person I had never seen. Surely it is the will of our gracious Lord that there should be a closer union between you and Yours in tender affection. To Thomas Rutherford [8] CARMARTHEN, May 8, 1781. DEAR TOMMY, -- You do well to break up fresh ground. We are ‘sent to disciple all mankind.’ If Mr. Abraham continues as he is, I shall be glad after a while to have him nearer me. [See letters of Feb. 20, 1781 (to Rutherford), and Feb. 20, 1782.] After tossing up and down two days and two nights in a violent storm, finding it impossible to proceed, our captain was glad to take shelter in Holyhead harbor. I believed it to be the hand of God, and was content. So I give over the hope of seeing Dublin for the present; but I do not despair of seeing Londonderry within this month, if I should find an opportunity of getting over to the Isle of Man two or three weeks hence.--I am, dear Tommy, Your affectionate friend and brother. I expect to be at Whitehaven before the end of this month. To John Bredin MANCHESTER, May 17, 1781.