Wesley Corpus

But in spring I went to reside there; and for some time things went on excellently well. The young men were serious, and made a considerable progress in learning. And many of them seemed to have a talent for preaching. Mr. Fletcher visited them frequently, and was received as an angel of God. It is not possible for me: to describe the veneration in which we all held him. Like Elijah in the schools of the Prophets he was revered; he was loved; he was almost adored; and that, not only by every student, but by every member of the family. And indeed he was worthy. “Forgive me, my dear Sir, if you think Iexceed. My heart kindles while I write. Here it was that I saw,--shall I say, an angel in human flesh? I should not far exceed the truth if I said so. But here I saw a descendant of fallen Adam, so fully raised above the ruins of the fall, that though by the body he was tied down to earth, yet was his whole ‘conversa tion in heaven; yet was his life, from day to day, ‘hid with Christ in God.” Prayer, praise, love, and zeal, all ardent, elevated above what one would think attainable in this state of frailty, were the element in which he himself continually lived. And as to others, his one employment was, to call, entreat, and urge them to ascend with him to the glorious Source of being and blessedness. He had leisure compara tively for nothing else. Languages, arts, sciences, grammar, 1'hetoric, logic, even divinity itself, as it is called, were all laid aside, when he appeared in the school-room among the 1students. His full heart would not suffer him to be silent. He must speak; and they were readier to hearken to this servant and Minister of Jesus Christ, than to attend to Sallust, Virgil, Cicero, or any Latin or Greek historian, poet, or philosopher they were reading. And they seldom hearkened long, before they were all in tears, and every heart catched fire from the flame that burned in his soul. 10.