Wesley Corpus

pensations of God, all the influences of his Holy Spirit, whether he gives us joy or sorrow of heart, whether he inspires us with vigour and cheerfulness, or permits us to sink into deadness of soul, into dejection and heaviness, it is with the same view ; namely, to restore us to health, to liberty, to holiness : these are all designed to heal those inbred diseases of our nature, self-love and the love of the world. They are all given, together with the exter nal dispensation of our daily bread, to enable us to convert them into spiritual nourishment, and to recover his love, which is health to our souls. Therefore the renewal of our natures in this love being not only the one end of our creation and redemption, but likewise of all the providences of God over us, and all the operations of his Spirit in us, it must be, as the eternal wisdom of God hath declared it, c the one thing needful." How great reason, even in the Christian world, there is to resume the apostle's exhort ation, " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead ?" Hath not Christ given thee light ? why then sittest thou in the shadow of