“April 21, 1783.
“Dear Harry,—Your letter gave me pleasure and pain. It gave me pleasure, because it was written in a mild and loving spirit; but it gave me pain, because I found I had pained you, whom I so tenderly love and esteem. But I shall do it no more. I sincerely thank you for your kind reproof. It is a precious balm, and will, I trust, in the hands of the Great Physician, be the means of healing my sickness. I am so sensible of your real friendship herein, that I cannot write without tears. The words you mention were too strong. They will no more fall from my mouth.
“I am, dear Harry, affectionately yours,
“John Wesley.”[443]
This may serve as an erratum, belonging to the Arminian Magazine of 1782.
[419] Methodist Recorder, Aug. 16, 1867.
[420] It was doubtless at this time that he had a youthful hearer, who afterwards became the renowned Sir Walter Scott. In a letter to Southey, dated Abbotsford, April 4, 1819, Scott writes: “When I was about twelve years old, I heard Wesley preach more than once, standing on a chair, in Kelso churchyard. He was a most venerable figure, but his sermons were vastly too colloquial for the taste of Saunders. He told many excellent stories. One I remember, which he said had happened to him at Edinburgh. ‘A drunken dragoon,’ said Wesley, ‘was commencing an assertion in military fashion, G——d eternally d——n me, just as I was passing. I touched the poor man on the shoulder, and when he turned round fiercely, said calmly, You mean, God bless you.’ In the mode of telling the story, he failed not to make us sensible how much this patriarchal appearance, and mild yet bold rebuke, overawed the soldier, who touched his hat, thanked him, and, I think, came to chapel that evening.”—(“Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott,” by J. G. Lockhart, Esq.)
[421] Methodist Magazine, 1854, p. 184.
[422] Wesley’s Works, vol. xii., p. 138.
[423] Wesley’s Works, vol. xii., p. 140.
[424] The copy before us is addressed “To Mr. Thompson, at the Methodist chapel, Hull,” and is signed by Wesley in his own handwriting.
[425] Coke’s manuscript letter.
[426] Manuscript letter.
[427] Ibid.
[428] For the manuscripts that have been used, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Clapham, of Birstal.
[429] Methodist Magazine, 1824, p. 307.
[430] Ibid. 1790, pp. 106, 163.
[431] Both clergymen.
[432] Wesley’s Works, vol. xii., p. 475.
[433] Myles’s History.
[434] Methodist Magazine, 1826, p. 794.
[435] Wesley’s Works, vol. xiii., p. 309.
[436] Methodist Magazine, 1782, p. 468.
[437] Ibid. 1798, p. 492; and 1780, p. 448.
[438] Wesley’s Works, vol. xiii., p. 13.
[439] Methodist Magazine, 1790, p. 557.
[440] Everett’s “Methodism in Sheffield.”
[441] Dyson’s “History of Methodism in the Isle of Wight.”
[442] In 1783, this sermon was reprinted, in a separate form, without Wesley’s knowledge, by a gentleman of Cambridge, in 12mo.
[443] Walton’s “Memorial of W. Law,” p. 91; and Brooke’s Life, p. 194.