Wesley Corpus

I preached at Luton; the next evening, at Hertford; and on Friday morning, returned to London. This day we observed as a day of fasting and prayer, and were much persuaded God will yet be entreated. I revised a volume of Latin Poems, wrote by a gentleman of Denmark. I was surprised. Most of the verses are not unworthy of the Augustan age. Among the rest, there is a translation of two of Mr. Pope's Epistles, line for line. And yet, in language, not only as pure as Virgil's, but as elegant too. Tues. JANUARY 2, 1776.-Being pressed to pay a visit to our brethren at Bristol, some of whom had been a little un settled by the patriots, so called, I set out early; but the roads were so heavy, that I could not get thither till night. I came just time enough, not to see, but to bury, poor Mr. Hall, my brother-in-law, who died on Wednesday morning; I trust, in peace; for God had given him deep repentance. Such another monument of divine mercy, considering how low he had fallen, and from what height of holiness, I have not seen, no, not in seventy years l I had designed to visit him in the morning; but he did not stay for my coming. It is enough, if, after all his wanderings, we meet again in Abraham's bosom. JANUARY 1, 1776. About eighteen hundred of us met together in London, in order to renew our covenant with God; and it was, as usual, a very solemn opportunity. -I set out for Bristol. Between London and Bristol, I read over that elegant trifle, "The Correspondence between Theodosius and Constantia." I observed only one sentiment which I could not receive, that "youth is the only possible time for friendship; because every one has at first a natural store of sincerity and benevolence; but as in process of time men find every one to be false and self-interested, they conform to them more and more, till, in riper years, they have neither truth nor benevolence left." Perhaps it may be so with all that know not God; but they that do, escape "the corruption that is in the world;" and increase both in sincerity and in benevolence, as they grow in the knowledge of Christ. Sat.