Wesley Corpus

Now, who can insure another? Who can exempt himself in the time of general distress, from such an evil? Alas ! brethren, “we must let this alone for ever. We are of yesterday, and know nothing” of to-morrow. What then must we do to save (not to destroy) our kingdom, and to save (not to destroy) our American brethren? Do, my brethren | Why, what would we do, if either our own or our neighbour's house were on fire? We should bring, if in our senses, no combustible matter to increase the flame, but water and a helping hand to extinguish it. This we should certainly do, and our labour would not be in vain. Now, apply this to America and Great Britain. The former is like an house on fire; the devouring flames of an unnatural civil war are already kindled, and some hundreds of lives have fallen a prey to its insatiable violence. And how long before this may be our case here, God only knows! Stop here then, my brethren, and survey the desolation. Behold the weeping and disconsolate widow refusing to be comforted | Her beloved husband is fallen l is fallen l and is no more ! See the affectionate parent hanging down his head like the bulrush | Hear the broken language of his heart | “My son I my son I would God I had died in thy place I O my son I my son 1’’ This is far from the flight of imagination, or the colouring of fancy. It is the real and actual condition of many amongst that unhappy people, and ..a part only of their manifold distress. In a word, they and we appear to be a people infatuated like the Jews of old, and ripening for destruction; and no marvel if, while we are biting and devouring one another, some stronger beasts of prey step in and divide the spoil!