Wesley Corpus

At all events go to one in whom you can confide, and speak just what you feel. God will enable him to speak a word in season, which shall be health to your soul. And surely He will again lift up your head, and cause the bones that have been broken to rejoice. “Q. 38. What is the last advice that you would give them? “A. Be exemplary in all things; particularly in outward things, (as in dress,) in little things, in the laying out of your money, (avoiding every needless expense,) in deep, steady seriousness, and in the solidity and usefulness of all your conversation. So shall you be ‘a light shining in a dark place.’ So shall you daily “grow in grace, till ‘an entrance be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ “Most of the preceding advices are strongly enforced in the following reflections; which I recommend to your deep and frequent consideration, next to the holy Scriptures : “(1.) The sea is an excellent figure of the fulness of God, and that of the blessed Spirit. For as the rivers all return into the sea; so the bodies, the souls, and the good works of the righteous, return into God, to live there in his etermal repose. “Although all the graces of God depend on his mere bounty, yet is He pleased generally to attach them to the prayers, the instructions, and the holiness of those with whom we are. By strong though invisible attractions He draws some souls through their intercourse with others. “The sympathies formed by grace far surpass those formed by nature. “The truly devout show that passions as naturally flow from true as from false love; so deeply sensible are they of the goods and evils of those whom they love for God’s sake. But this can only be comprehended by those who understand the language of love. “The bottom of the soul may be in repose, even while we are in many outward troubles; just as the bottom of the sea is calm, while the surface is strongly agitated. “The best helps to growth in grace are the ill usage, the affronts, and the losses which befal us. We should receive them with all thankfulness, as preferable to all others, were it only on this account,-that our will has no part therein.