holy and upright woman, to whose care they were confided, will only be fully disclosed "in that day." Justly was she esteemed and beloved; and, though some persons may regard the office which she sustained as an humble one, deservedly has her name been immortalized in the Wesley poetry. Thus in the patriarchal records we read, "But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died; and she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth;" that is, "the oak of weeping." (Gen. xxxv. 8.) Spiritual and moral worth, in whomsoever found, "shall be had in everlasting remembrance:" and "a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." From hence the fight of faith began, By all the rage of fiends and men, Nor men nor fiends her firmness shock, What tongue her hidden worth can tell, Her thirst and reverence for the word, She loved them both in word and deed, Him in his members she relieved, How did her generous bounty deal A treasure spent without decrease, But who can paint the strong desire, To' ensure the bliss of friends and foes, Witness, ye children of her prayers, Did not her yearning bowels move, To train you up for heaven? The sight her ravish'd spirit fires, And fills her mouth with praise; Fill'd up with love and life divine, With mix'd concern her flight we view, Our bosom-friend from earth is flown, To her eternal rest. Yet still to us she speaks, though dead, As in her Saviour's she; And O that we, like her, may prove Our faith unfeign'd, and genuine love, Who live like her, her death shall die; That we the prize shall gain; Soon as we lay the body down, That we shall wear the' immortal crown, Under the date of Jan. 14th, 1755, Mr. Whitefield addressed a letter from Virginia, to his friend Mr. Charles Wesley, breathing his usual spirit of zeal and kindness. He says, "My dear Friend,-Some time ago, when at New-York, I heard you was sick. This, I suppose, hath been the occasion of my not hearing from you. Well! blessed be God, sick or well, we can go on our way to heaven. This is begun on earth. If it was not so, what should I do in this pilgrim way? I suppose my circuit upon the continent already hath been two thousand miles; and a journey of six hundred more before I reach Bethesda yet lies before me. Scenes of wonder have opened all the way. A thousandth part cannot be told. In Virginia the prospect is very promising. I have preached in two churches, and this morning am to preach in a third. Rich and poor seem quite ready to hear. Many have been truly awakened. Continue to pray for a poor but willing hunter after souls. O it is heavenly sport! 'Christ's presence doth my pains beguile, "About May I hope to see England. O that you may see me grown in grace! But, alas! alas! I am a dwarf. Lord Jesus, quicken my tardy pace. My cordial respects await your dear yoke-fellow, your brother, and all that are concerned for, or inquire after, my dear friend, "Yours most affectionately in our common Lord." Every one who had watched the proceedings of the Wesleys, and considered the principles in which they had been trained, must have perceived, from the beginning of their irregularities, that soon or late they would be involved in serious difficulties with regard to the established Church. Through the force of education and example, as we have already seen, when they were at Oxford and in Georgia, they were among the strictest of strict Churchmen, and would have thought it almost a sin even to save a soul from hell, except in accordance with the rubric, and in the use of the Book of Common Prayer. They denied the validity of baptism when administered by men who had only received Presbyterian ordination; for they thought that the laying on of a Bishop's hands was essential to the ministerial character; and that those who had only been ordained "by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery," were mere laymen,-though they might belong to Protestant national Churches, such as those of Scotland and Holland, and could therefore perform no proper ministerial act. Greatly were they shocked when some of their own sons in the Gospel began to preach; and they resolved at once to silence them by the strong hand of power. But in this they were overruled. They saw that God was with the men whom they charged to hold their peace. Their spirit was devout; and their ministrations were sanctioned by the divine blessing, not in a few solitary instances merely, but in the actual conversion and salvation of multitudes. Hence the brothers were not only reconciled to this innovation, but defended it, and rejoiced in it, as a means which Christ him |