Wesley Corpus

This wish glows in my soul so ardently, that it brings me down upon my knees while I write. And in that posture I entreat you all to consider and improve the day of your visitation; and to prepare in good earnest to meet with joy your God and your unworthy Pastor in another world ! Weak as I was when I left you, I hear that many, who were then healthy and strong, have got the start of me; and that some have been hurried into eternity without a moment's warning. May this awful event strike a deeper consideration into all our souls 1 May the sound of their bodies, dashed in pieces at the bottom of the pit, rouse us to a speedy conversion, that we may never, through carelessness or delay, fall into the bottomless pit ! Tottering as I stand on the brink of the grave, some of you also may drop into it before me. Let us all, then, prepare for our approaching change, and never rest till we are assured it will be a happy one. Let the longsuffering of God toward us, who survive the hundreds that I have buried, lead us all to repentance. Embrace Jesus Christ, who wept for you in the manger, agonized for you in. the garden, bled for you on the cross, and now pleads for you on his mediatorial throne. Meet me not at the great day in your sins and in your blood. Meet me in the robe of Christ's merits, and in ‘the white linen’ (the purity of heart and life) ‘which is the righteousness of the saints. Let all wickedness be gone for ever with the old year; and with the new year begin a new life; a life of renewed devotion to God, and increasing love to our neighbour. “Though I hope to see much more of the goodness of God in the land of the living than I do see, yet, blessed be the divine mercy, I see enough to keep my mind at all times unruffled, and to make me calmly willing to resign my soul into the hands of my faithful Creator. I desire your public thanks for all the favours which he continually showeth me. May our thankfulness crown the new year, as the Lord’s patience and goodness have renewed our life.