Wesley Corpus

Are they so still Is your conscience as tender now in these things as it was then Do you still follow the same rule both in furniture and apparel, trampling all finer, all superfluity, every thing useless, every thing merely ornamental, however fashionable, underfoot Rather, have you not resumed what you had once laid aside, and what you could not then use without wounding you conscience And have you not learned to say, "O, I am not so scrupulous now" I would to God you were! Then you would not sin thus, "because you are not under the law, but under grace!" 6. You was once scrupulous too of commending any to their face; and still more, of suffering any to commend you. It was a stab to your heart; you could not bear it; you sought the honour that cometh of God only. You could not endure such conversation; nor any conversation which was not good to the use of edifying. All idle talk, all trifling discourse, you abhorred; you hated as well as feared it; being deeply sensible of the value of time, of every precious, fleeting moment. In like manner, you dreaded and abhorred idle expense; valuing your money only less than your time, and trembling lest you should be found an unfaithful steward even of the mammon of unrighteousness. Do you now look upon praise as deadly poison, which you can neither give nor receive but at the peril of your soul Do you still dread and abhor all conversation which does not tend to the use of edifying; and labour to improve every moment, that it may not pass without leaving you better than it found you Are not you less careful as to the expense both of money and time Cannot you now lay out either, as you could not have done once Alas! how has that "which should have been for your health, proved to you an occasion of falling!" How have you "sinned because you was not under the law, but under grace!"