Wesley Corpus

It is said of New Testament believers, “They are come to the spirits of just men made perfect;’ to the glorious privilege of com munion with the Church triumphant. But this is far more apparent to the eyes of celestial spirits, than to ours, which are yet veiled with flesh and blood. Yet as there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, and as the prayers of saints still on earth are represented by incense in the hands of the Elders, I can only consider departed spirits, and minis tering angels, as one innumerable company, continually surrounding us. And are they not as nearly united to their fellow-soldiers now, as when they were in the body? What should hinder? Gratitude and affection are natives of heaven, and live for ever there. Forgetfulness is a property of mor tality, and drops off with the body. Therefore they that loved us in the Lord will surely love us for ever. Can anything material interrupt the light or presence of a spirit? Nay, Walls within walls no more the passage bar Than unopposing space of liquid air. “On the 17th, his remains were deposited in Madeley churchyard, amidst the tears and lamentations of thousands. The service was performed by the Rev. Mr. Hatton, Rector of Waters-Upton, whom God enabled to speak in a pathetic manner to the weeping flock. In the conclusion, at my request, he read the following paper:-- “As it was the desire of my beloved husband to be buried in this plain manner, so out of tenderness he begged that I might not be present. And in everything I would obey him. “Permit me then, by the mouth of a friend, to bear an open testimony to the glory of God, that I, who have known him in the most perfect manner, am constrained to declare, that I never knew any one walk so closely in the ways of God as he did. The Lord gave him a conscience tender as the apple of an eye. And he literally preferred the interest of every one to his own. “He was rigidly just, and perfectly loose from attachment to the world. He shared his all with the poor, who lay so close to his heart, that, at the approach of death, when he could not speak without difficulty, he cried out, ‘O my poor !