JANUARY 31

Go steadily and quietly on in the way wherein Providence leads you, and in every temptation He by His Spirit will clear a way for you to escape.
to Sarah Mallett, 1788


Proceed with much prayer, and your way will be made plain.
to Ellen Gretton, 1782


Pray as you can, though you are ever so cold or dead.
to Mary Yeoman, 1769


If you would please men, please God.
Works, vii. 146

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:57 PM |


JANUARY 30

Your calling is not only to do good, but to do all the good you possibly can.
Letter, 27th October, 1784


I have thrown up my friends, reputation, ease, country; I have put my life in my hand, wandering in strange lands; I have given up my body to be devoured by the deep, parched up with heat, consumed by toil and weariness, or whatsoever God should please to bring upon me. But does all this (be it more or less, it matters not) make me acceptable to God? Does all I ever did or can know, say, give, for or suffer, justify me in His sight? Yea, or the constant use of all the means of grace? – (which nevertheless is meet, right and our bounden duty). Or that I know nothing of myself; that I am as touching outward moral righteousness blameless? Or, to come closer yet, the having a rational conviction of all the truths of Christianity? Does all this give me a claim to the holy, heavenly, divine character of a Christian? By no means.
Journal, 29th January, 1738

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:56 PM |


JANUARY 29

This world never made anyone happy; and it is certain it never will. But God will.
Letter, 5th July, 1783


This, then, have I learned in the ends of the earth, that I am fallen short of the glory of God. …

If it be said that I have faith … so the Apostles had even at Cana of Galilee, when Jesus first manifested forth His glory; even then they, in a sort, believed on Him, but they had not then the faith that overcometh the world. The faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that, through the merits of Christ, my sins are forgiven, and I reconciled to the favour of God. I want that faith which St. Paul recommends to all the world … which none can have without knowing that he hath it (though many imagine they have it, who have it not); for whosoever hath it is freed from sin, … he is freed from fear, having peace with God through Christ. … And he is freed from doubt. … The Spirit itself beareth witness with his spirit, that he is a child of God.
Journal, 29th January, 1738

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:54 PM |


JANUARY 28

When I had been a member of the University about ten years, I wrote and talked much as you do now. But then I talked to plain people in the Castle or the town, I observed they gaped and stared. This quickly obliged me to alter my style and adopt the language of those I spoke to. And yet there is a dignity in this simplicity, which is not disagreeable to those of the highest rank. … You are a Christian minister, speaking and writing to save souls. Have this end always in your eye, and you will never designedly use a hard word. Use all the sense, learning and fire you have; forgetting yourself, and remembering only these are souls for whom Christ died.
to the Reverend Samuel Furly, 1764


I would do just as I do now – all the good I can while I live.
Journal, 26th October, 1771

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:53 PM |


JANUARY 27

If you imitate any writer, let it be South, Atterbury, or Swift, in whom all the properties of a good writer meet. I was myself once much fonder of Prior than Pope; as I did not then know that stiffness was a fault. But what in all Prior can equal, for beauty of style, some of the first lines that Pope ever published? … Here is style! How clear, how pure, proper, strong, and yet how amazingly easy! This crowns all; no stiffness, no hard words; no apparent art, no affectation; all is natural, and therefore consummately beautiful. Go thou and write likewise.
to the Reverend Samuel Furly, 1764


Redeem the time, catch the golden moments as they fly.
Letter, 26th September, 1784

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:51 PM |


JANUARY 26

Love supplies all the essentials of good breeding, without the help of a dancing-master.
Journal, 4th September, 1776


What is it that constitutes a good style? Perspicuity and purity, propriety, strength, and easiness, joined together. Where any of these is wanting, it is not a good style. Dr. Middleton’s style wants easiness: it is stiff to a high degree. And stiffness in writing is full as great a fault as stiffness in behaviour. It is a blemish hardly to be excused, much less to be imitated. He is pedantic. ‘It is pedantry,’ says the great Lord Boyle, ‘to use a hard word where an easier one will serve.’
to the Reverend Samuel Furly, 1764

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:49 PM |


JANUARY 25

I am sick of opinions; I am weary to bear them. Give me solid and substantial religion; give me an humble, gentle lover of God and man.
Works, xiii. 244


At noon our third storm began. … The winds roared round about us, and (what I have never heard before) whistled distinctly as if it had been a human voice. The ship not only rocked to and fro with the utmost violence, but shook and jarred with so unequal, grating a motion that one could not but with great difficulty keep one’s hold of anything, nor stand for a moment without it. Every ten minutes came a shock against the stern or side of the ship, which one would think should dash the planks in pieces. At this time a child, privately baptized before, was brought to be received into the Church. It put me in mind of Jeremiah’s buying the field, when the Chaldeans were on the point of destroying Jerusalem, and seemed a pledge of the mercy of God designed to shew us, even in the land of the living.
Journal, 25th January, 1736

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:47 PM |


JANUARY 24

What is as clear to me as the sun at noonday is not so clear to everyone.
Works, xiii. 289



I went to America to convert the Indians; but, O! who shall convert me? who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief? I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near: but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled.

It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country, in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity; but what have I learned myself in the meantime? Why, (what I the least of all suspected), that I who went to America to convert others, was never myself converted to God.* I am not mad, though I thus speak; but I speak the words of truth and soberness.
Journal, 24th – 29th January, 1738

* – Wesley’s own note on this point reads, ‘I am not sure of this.’

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:45 PM |


JANUARY 23

I love truth wherever I find it.
Letter, 13th October, 1762


As for me, I never think of my style at all, but just set down the words that come first. Only when I transcribe anything for the press, then I think it my duty to see that every phrase be clear, pure and proper. Conciseness (which is now as it were natural to me) brings quantum sufficit of strength. If, after all, I observe any stiff expression, I throw it out, neck and shoulders. Clearness in particular is necessary for you and me, because we are to instruct people of the least understanding.
A Good Style

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:43 PM |


JANUARY 22

A calm, even spirit goes through rough work far better than a furious one.
Journal, 23rd June, 1766


If anyone desire to know exactly what quantity of sleep his own constitution requires, he may very easily make the experiment which I made about sixty years ago; I then waked every night about twelve or one, and lay awake for some time. I readily concluded that this arose from my lying longer in bed than nature required. To be satisfied, I procured an alarum, which waked me the next morning at seven, (nearly an hour earlier than I rose the day before,) yet I lay awake again at night. The second morning I rose at six; but notwithstanding this, I lay awake the second night. The third morning I rose at five; but nevertheless I lay awake the third night. The fourth morning I rose at four, (as, by the grace of God, I have done ever since). And I lay awake no more.
Redeeming the Time

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:42 PM |


JANUARY 21

If he has bad tempers, he is no more a good man than the devil is a good angel.
Journal, 16th May, 1784


I go to Church whether the minister is good or bad, and advise others so to do.
to James Rea, 1766


Unstable Methodists will always be subject to the temptation of sermon-hunting.
to Thomas Taylor, 1791


‘Are you going to hear Mr. Wesley?’ said a friend to Mr. Blackwell. ‘No,’ he answered; ‘I am going to hear God. I listen to Him, whoever preaches, otherwise I lose all my labour.’
to Miss March, 1776

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:40 PM |


JANUARY 20

To each of those of whose seriousness and good conversation I found no reason to doubt I gave a testimony under my own hand by writing their name on a ticket prepared for that purpose, every ticket implying as strong a recommendation of the person to whom it was given as if I had wrote at length: ‘I believe the bearer hereof to be one that fears God and works righteousness.’

Those who bore these tickets (these ... tesserae, as the ancients termed them, being of just the same force with the ‘commendatory letters’, mentioned by the Apostle), wherever they came, were acknowledged by their brethren and received with all cheerfulness.
to the Reverend Vincent Perronnet, 1748


I must declare just what I find in the book.
Journal, 2nd November, 1772

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:37 PM |


JANUARY 19

I gave notice of this* to the Society; telling them that all who were ill of chronical distempers (for I did not care to venture upon acute) might, if they pleased, come to me at such a time, and I would give them the best advice I could and the best medicines I had.

Many came (and so every Friday since); among the rest was one William Kirkman, a weaver, near Old Nichol Street. I asked him: ‘What complaint have you?’ ‘Oh sir,’ said he, ‘a cough, a very sore cough. I can get no rest day nor night.’

I asked: ‘How long have you had it?’ He replied: ‘About threescore years; it began when I was eleven years old.’ I was nothing glad that this man should come first, fearing our not curing him might discourage others. However, I looked up to God, and said: ‘Take this three or four times a day. If it does you no good, it will do you no harm.’ He took it two or three days. His cough was cured, and has not returned to this day.
to the Reverend Vincent Perronnet, 1748

*– his decision to treat simple cases of illness on his own

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:45 PM |


JANUARY 18

As long as you feel your own weakness and helplessness, you will find help from above.
Letter, 15th October, 1785


But I was still in pain for many of the poor that were sick; there was so great expense, and so little profit. … At length I thought of a kind of desperate expedient. ‘I will prepare and give them physic myself.’ For seven and twenty years I had made anatomy and physic the diversion of my leisure hours, though I never properly studied them, unless for a few months when I was going to America, where I imagined I might be of some service to those who had no regular physician among them. I applied to it again. I took into my assistance an apothecary and experienced surgeon; resolving at the same time not to go out of my depth but to leave all difficult and complicated cases to such physicians as the patients should choose.
to the Reverend Vincent Perronnet, 1748

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:43 PM |


JANUARY 17

But it was not long before the stewards found a great difficulty with regard to the sick. … When I was apprised of this, I laid the case at large before the whole Society; showed how impossible it was for the stewards to attend all that were sick in all parts of the town; desired the leaders of classes would more carefully enquire, and more constantly inform them, who were sick; and asked, ‘Who among you is willing as well as able to supply this lack of service?’

The next morning many willingly offered themselves. I chose six and forty of them, divided the town into twenty-three parts, and desired two of them to visit the sick in each division.
to the Reverend Vincent Perronnet, 1748


Do all you can for so good a Master.
Letter, 31st July, 1784

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:41 PM |


JANUARY 16

It is a great thing to seize and improve the very now.
Letter, 1st September, 1771


I have again and again, with all the plainness I could, declared what our constant doctrines are, whereby we are distinguished only from heathens or nominal Christians, not from any that worship God in spirit and in truth. Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three – that of Repentance, of Faith and of Holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself.
to Thomas Church, 1746

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:39 PM |


JANUARY 15

I am content with whatever entertainment I meet with, and my companions are always in good humour. … This must be the spirit of all who take journeys with me. If a dinner ill-dressed, or hard bed, a poor room, a shower of rain, or a dusty road will put them out of humour, it lays a burden upon me greater than all the rest put together. By the grace of God I never fret, I repine at nothing. I am discontented with nothing. And to hear persons at my ear fretting and murmuring at everything is like tearing the flesh off my bones.
to Ebenezer Blackwell, 1755


We are really a company of poor gentlemen! But we have food and raiment and content.
to Christopher Hopper, 1774


It will be given you without money and without price; you know not how soon.
to Mr. Orchard, 1783

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:37 PM |


JANUARY 14

When you help others, God will help you.
Letter, 31st August, 1784


Always remember the essence of Christian holiness is simplicity and purity: one design, one desire: entire devotion to God.

. . . . . . .

To use the grace given is the certain way to obtain more grace. To use all the faith you have will bring an increase in faith.

. . . . . . .

The dealings of God with man are infinitely varied and cannot be confined to any general rule.

. . . . . . .

Pray, just as you are led, without reasoning, in all simplicity. Be a little child, hanging on Him that loves you.
to Miss March, 1770-2

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:35 PM |


JANUARY 13

If we see God in all things, and do all for Him, then all things are easy.
Letter, 28th May, 1757


Go and see the poor and sick in their own poor little hovels. Take up your cross, woman! Remember the faith! Jesus went before you and will go with you. Put off the gentlewoman; you bear a higher character.

. . . . . . .

I have found some of the uneducated poor who have exquisite taste and sentiment; and many, very many, of the rich who have scarcely any at all.

. . . . . . .

Beware of indulging gloomy thoughts; they are the bane of thankfulness. You are encompassed with ten thousand mercies; let these sink you into humble thankfulness.
to Miss March, 1775-7

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:34 PM |


JANUARY 12

I myself find more life in the Church prayers than in any formal extemporary prayers of Dissenters. Nay, I find more profit in sermons on either good temper or good works than in what are vulgarly called Gospel sermons. That term is now become a mere cant word; I wish none of our Society would use it. It has no determinate meaning. Let but a pert, self-sufficient animal, that has neither grace nor sense, bawl out something about Christ and His blood or justification by faith, and his hearers cry out: ‘What a fine Gospel sermon!’ Surely the Methodists have not so learned Christ! We know no Gospel without salvation from sin.
to Mary Bishop, 1778


Whatever clouds may interpose between, His banner over you is love.
Letter, 28th March, 1785

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 5:32 PM |


JANUARY 11

A drunkard is a public enemy.
A Word to a Drunkard


You are an enemy to yourself, you throw away your own blessing, if you neglect to keep the Sabbath day holy.
A Word to a Sabbath Breaker


Distilled liquors have their use, but are infinitely overbalanced by the abuse of them,; therefore, were it in my power, I would banish them out of the world.
to Thomas Wride, 1787


God can do His work by pleasure as well as by pain.
Letter, 1st April, 1784

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 7:09 PM |


JANUARY 10

The passions have a greater influence upon health than most people are aware of. All violent and sudden passions dispose to or actually throw people into acute diseases. Till the passion which caused the disease is calmed, medicine is applied in vain.

The love of God, as it is the sovereign remedy of all miseries, so in particular it effectually prevents all the bodily disorders the passions introduce, by keeping the passions themselves within due bounds; and by the unspeakable calm serenity and tranquility it gives the mind, it becomes the most powerful of all the means of health and long life.
Primitive Physic


You are in God’s school, and He will teach you one lesson after another till you have learned all His holy and acceptable will.
Letter, 1st April, 1784

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 7:07 PM |


JANUARY 9

Observe all the time the greatest exactness in your regimen or manner of living. Abstain from all mixed or high-seasoned food. Use plain diet easy of digestion, and this as sparingly as you can consistent with ease and strength. Drink only water if it agrees with your stomach, if not, good clear small beer. Use as much exercise daily in the open air as you can, without weariness. Sup at six or seven on the lightest food; go to bed early, and rise betimes. To preserve with steadiness in this course is often more than half the cure. Above all, add to the rest, for it is not labour lost, that old-fashioned medicine – prayer; and have faith in God.
Primitive Physic


You have your hands full of business, but it will not hurt you while your heart is free.
Letter, 1st May, 1783

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 7:04 PM |


JANUARY 8

You look inward too much, and upward too little.
Letter, 16th February, 1771


Hear ye this, all ye that are called Methodists. You constantly speak of salvation by faith, and you are right in so doing. … But consider, meantime, that let us have ever so much faith, and be our faith ever so strong, it will never save us from hell, unless it now save us from all unholy tempers; from pride, passion, impatience; from all arrogance of spirit, all haughtiness and overbearing; from wrath, anger, bitterness; from discontent, murmuring, fretfulness, peevishness. We are of all men most inexcusable, if having been so frequently guarded against that strong delusion, we still, while we indulge any of these tempers, bless ourselves and dream we are in the way to heaven.
Charity

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 7:01 PM |


JANUARY 7

If ever I should listen to that siren song, “Spare thyself,” I believe my Master would spare me no longer, but soon take me away.
Letter, 10th January, 1783


By these marks, by these fruits of a living faith, do we labour to distinguish ourselves from the unbelieving world, from all those whose minds or lives are not according to the Gospel of Christ. But from real Christians, of whatever denomination they be, we earnestly desire not to be distinguished at all; not from any who sincerely follow after what they know they have not yet attained. No: ‘Whosoever doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.’ And I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that we be in no wise divided among ourselves.
The Character of a Methodist

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 6:58 PM |


JANUARY 6

Go on, for God is with you.
Letter, 22nd October, 1776


A Methodist is one who has the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him, one who loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength. God is the joy of his heart and the desire of his soul, which is constantly crying out: ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee! My God and my all! Thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever!’
The Character of a Methodist

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 8:42 AM |


JANUARY 5

We do not place the whole of religion (as too many do, God knoweth) either in doing no harm or in doing good or in using the ordinances of God. No, not in all of them together; wherein we know by experience a man may labour many years, and at the end have no true religion at all, no more than he had at the beginning. Much less in any one of these; or, it may be, in a scrap of one of them: Like her who fancies herself a virtuous woman, only because she is not a prostitute; or him who dreams he is an honest man, merely because he does not rob or steal. May the Lord God of my fathers preserve me from such a poor, starved religion as this!
The Character of a Methodist


Who would wish to live for any meaner purpose than to serve God in our generation?
Letter, 10th January, 1783

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 3:14 PM |


JANUARY 4

At this season we usually distribute coals and bread among the poor of the Society; but I now considered they wanted clothes as well as food. So on this and the four following days I walked through the town and begged two hundred pounds, in order to clothe them that wanted it the most. But it was hard work, as most of the streets were filled with melting snow, which often lay ankle deep, so that my feet were steeped in snow-water from morning till evening. I held it out pretty well till Saturday evening, when I was laid up with a violent flux.
Journal, 4th January, 1785


This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of man.
Earnest Appeal

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 3:13 PM |


JANUARY 3

Do not imagine an outward form, a round of duties, is religion. Do not suppose that honesty, justice and whatever is called morality (though excellent in its place) is religion. And least of all dream that orthodoxy, right opinion, vulgarly called faith, is religion.
The End of Christ’s Coming


Without zeal it is impossible either to make any considerable progress in religion ourselves or to do any considerable service to our neighbour.
Zeal


Whoever trusts in himself will be confounded.
Redeeming the Time


I thank you. I will think of it.
reportedly his first utterance as a child

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 1:06 PM |


JANUARY 2

It is the glory of the people called Methodists that they condemn none for their opinions or modes of worship. They think and let think, and insist upon nothing but faith working by love.
to Mrs. Howton, 1783


Leisure and I have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long indulged me.
Works, xii. 20


The Methodists are to spread life among all denominations.
to Thomas Taylor, 1790


I care not a rush for your being called a Papist or Protestant. But I am grieved at your being a heathen. Certain it is that the general religion of both Protestants and Catholics is no better than refined heathenism.
to his nephew, Samuel Wesley, 1790

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 1:05 PM |


JANUARY 1

First let us agree what religion is. I take religion to be, not the bar saying over so many prayers, morning and evening, in public or in private; not anything superadded now and then to a careless or worldly life; but a constant ruling habit of soul, a renewal of our minds in the image of God, a recovery of the Divine likeness, a still-increasing conformity of heart and life to the pattern of our most holy Redeemer. But if this be religion, if this be that way to life which our blessed Lord hath marked out for us, how can any one, while he keeps close to this way, be charged with running into extremes?
to Richard Morgan, 1734


I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounded duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation.
Journal, 11th June, 1739

Posted by The Husky Wesleyan at 1:04 PM |