Wesley Corpus

4. But may it not be asked, "Are there now any signs that the day of God's power is approaching" I appeal to every candid, unprejudiced person, whether we may not, at this day, discern all those signs, (understanding the words in a spiritual sense,) to which our Lord referred to John's disciples "The blind receive their sight:" Those who were blind from their birth, unable to see their own deplorable state, and much more to see God, and the remedy he has prepared for them in the Son of his love, now see themselves, yea, and "the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. "The eyes of their understanding being now opened, they see all things clearly. -- "The deaf hear:" Those that were before utterly deaf, to all the outward and inward calls of God, now hear, not only his providential calls, but also the whispers of his grace. -- "The lame walk:" Those who never before arose from the earth, or moved one step toward heaven, are now walking in all the ways of God; yea, "running the race that is set before them." -- "The lepers are cleansed:" The deadly leprosy of sin, which they brought with them into the world, and which no art of man could ever cure, is now clean departed from them. And surely never in any age or nation, since the apostles, have those words been so eminently fulfilled, "The poor have the gospel preached unto them," as it is at this day. At this day the gospel leaven, faith working by love, -- inward and outward holiness, -- or, (to use the terms of St. Paul,) "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" -- hath so spread in various parts of Europe, particularly in England, Scotland, Ireland, in the islands, in the north and south, from Georgia to New-England and Newfoundland, that sinners have been truly converted to God, throughly changed both in heart and in life; not by tens, or by hundreds only, but by thousands, yea, by myriads! The fact cannot be denied: we can point out the persons, with their names and places of abode.