Wesley Corpus

This is true resignation. And since He has borne our infirmities, we may well bear those of each other for His sake. “To abandon all, to strip one’s self of all, in order to seek and to follow Jesus Christ naked to Bethlehem, where he was born; naked to the hall where he was scourged; and naked to Calvary, where he died on the cross, is so great a mercy, that neither the thing, nor the knowledge of it, is given to any, but through faith in the Son of God. “(3.) There is no love of God without patience, and no patience without lowliness and sweetness of spirit. “Humility and patience are the surest proofs of the increase of love. “Humility alone unites patience with love; without which it is impossible to draw profit from suffering; or indeed, to avoid complaint, especially when we think we have given no occasion for what men make us suffer. “True humility is a kind of self-annihilation; and this is the centre of all virtues. “A soul returned to God ought to be attentive to every thing which is said to him, on the head of salvation, with a desire to profit thereby. “Of the sins which God has pardoned, let nothing remain but a deeper humility in the heart, and a stricter regulation in our words, in our actions, and in our sufferings. “(4.) The bearing men, and suffering evils in meekness and silence, is the sum of a Christian life. “God is the first object of our love: Its next office is, to bear the defects of others. And we should begin the practice of this amidst our own household. “We should chiefly exercise our love towards them who most shock either our way of thinking, or our temper, or our knowledge, or the desire we have that others should be as virtuous as we wish to be ourselves. “(5.) God hardly gives his Spirit even to those whom he has established in grace, if they do not pray for it on all occasions, not only once, but many times. “God does nothing but in answer to prayer; and even they who have been converted to God without praying for it themselves, (which is exceeding rare,) were not without the prayers of others. Every new victory which a soul gains is the effect of a new prayer.