Wesley Corpus

MY DEAR BROTHR, - The sooner the affair is settled the better. I desire, therefore, that Mr. Ashman will receive what is in Mr. Smith's hands. You say you can borrow as much more than Mr. Gifford's ten pounds as will make up the hundred. As soon as this is paid the house may be transferred to five or more trustees on the Conference plan. I forbid engaging any attorney. [The new chapel at Winchester had been opened the previous November. See letter of Sept. 13, 1785.] You have the form of conveyance in the Minutes, which anyone may transcribe. - I am Your affectionate brother. To the Rev. Mr. L. --- LONDON, October 25, 1786. Last night I had a long conversation with a few sensible men concerning going to church. [The conversation was evidently at Deptford. See Journal, vii. 217.] I asked them what objection they had to the hearing of Mr. L---. They answered, 'They could not hear him. He generally spoke so low that they lost a good part of what he said; and that what they could was spoken in a dead, cold, languid manner, as if he did not feel anything which he spoke.' This would naturally disgust them the more, because Dr. C[oke] leaned to the other extreme. I doubt there is some ground for their objection. But I should think you might easily remove it. I asked again, Have you any objection to anything in his behavior 'They answered, 'One thing we cannot approve of - his being ashamed of the Methodists. His never recommending or defending them at all, we think, is a full proof of this; for everyone knows his near relation and his many obligations to you. They know how you have loved and cherished him from a child.' They might have added, 'You owe your whole education to him; and therefore, in effect, your ordination, your curacy, your school, yea, and your wife: none of which you would in all likelihood have had had it not been for him.'