Wesley Corpus

What hinders? Is it this,--that men say all manner of evil of those whom God is pleased to use as instruments in his work? O ye fools, did ye suppose the devil was dead? or that he would not fight for his kingdom ? And what weapons shall he fight with, if not with lies? Is he not a liar, and the father of it? Suffer ye then thus far. Let the devil and his children say all manner of evil of us. And let them go on deceiving each other, and being deceived. But ye need not be deceived also; or if you are, if you will believe all they say, be it so,-that we are weak, silly, wicked men; without sense, without learning, without even a desire or design of doing good; yet I insist upon the fact: Christ is preached, and sinners are converted to God. This none but a madman can deny. We are ready to prove it by a cloud of witnesses. Neither, there fore, can the inference be denied, that God is now visiting his people. O that all men may know, in this their day, the things that make for their peace ! 101. Upon the whole, to men of the world I would still recom mend the known advice of Gamaliel: “Refrain from these men, and let them alone: For if this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” But unto you whom God hath chosen out of the world, I say, Ye are our brethren, and of our father’s house; it behoveth you, in whatsoever man ner ye are able, “to strengthen our hands in God.” And this ye are all able to do; to wish us good luck in the name of the Lord, and to pray continually that none of “these things may move us,” and that “we may not count our lives dear unto ourselves, so that we may finish our course with joy, and the ministry which we have received of the Lord Jesus!” Written in the year 1744. HAPPY the souls who first believed, To Jesus and each other cleaved, Join’d by the unction from above, In mystic fellowship of love!