Wesley Corpus

Dying groans are on every side. The bodies of men are pierced, torn, hewed in pieces; their blood is poured on the earth like water! Their souls take their flight into the eternal world; perhaps into everlasting misery. The ministers of grace turn away from the horrid scene; the ministers of vengeance triumph. Such already has been the face of things in that once happy land where peace and plenty, even while banished from great part of Europe, smiled for near an hundred years. 5. And what is it which drags on these poor victims into the field of blood It is a great phantom, which stalks before them, which they are taught to call, liberty! It is this Which breathes into their hearts stern love of war, And thirst of vengeance, and contempt of death. Real liberty, meantime, is trampled underfoot, and is lost in anarchy and confusion. 6. But which of these warriors all the while considered the wife of his youth, that is now left a disconsolate widow, -- perhaps with none that careth for her; perhaps deprived of her only comfort and support, and not having where to lay her head Who considered his helpless children, now desolate orphans, -- it may be, crying for bread, while their mother has nothing left to give them but her sorrows and her tears II. 1. And yet "these sheep, what have they done," although all this is come upon them "Suppose ye that they are sinners above other men, because they suffer such things I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It therefore behoves us to consider our own sins; -- the cause of all our sufferings. It behoves each of us to say, "Lo, I have sinned; I have done wickedly." 2. The time would fail, should I attempt to enumerate all the ways wherein we have sinned; but in general, this is certain: -- The rich, the poor, the high, the low, Have wander'd from his mild command; The floods of wickedness o'erflow, And deluge all the guilty land: People and Priest lie drown'd in sin, And Tophet yawns to take them in. How innumerable are the violations of justice among us! Who does not adopt the old maxim, Si possis, recte; si non, quocunque modo rem: "If you can get money honestly, do; but, however, get money"