The multiplicity of my business has obliged me to write this with so many interruptions, that I hope you will excuse the inaccuracies it may contain. My meaning I am sure is good, and, I hope, intelligible; and I am heartily willing that, with what measure I mete, it may be measured to me again. LETTER XCVII. REV. GEORGE WHITFIELD to MR. P. DEAR MR. P— Philadelphia, Nov. 28,-1739. What a divine sympathy and attraction is there between all those who by one spirit are made members of that mystical body, whereof Jesus Christ is the head! I loved your departed wife, now with God. I love your daughter, and the church in your house, in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Blessed be God that his love is so far shed abroad in our hearts, as to cause us to love one another, though we a little differ as to externals: for my part I hate to mention them. My one sole question is, Are you a Christian? Are you sealed by Christ's spirit to the day of redemption? Are you hungering and thirsting after the perfect everlasting righteousness of Jesus Christ? If so, you are my brother, my sister, and mother." I desire to love you as myself. This is my temper; I am persuaded it is yours. Why otherwise did you so gladly receive me into your house? The Lord re 66 ward you and the rest of your Christian brethren. Indeed I am present with you in spirit, and wish you "good luck in the name of the Lord." Yet a little while, and we shall sit down together in the kingdom of our Father. A place, though on a lower form, is, I humbly hope, prepared for Your affectionate friend and servant, G. W. LETTER XCVIII. REV. GEORGE WHITFIELD to MR. J. N Edinburgh, Sept. 13, 1742. MY VERY DEAR BROTHER N——, I have just been writing to our dear brother GT -, and now sit down to write to you. Both your letters came to me at the same time, and had I not been used to trials of that nature, would have affected me much. Dear Mr. T- speaks many things that I know are too true of the Moravian brethren; but his spirit seems to be too much heated, and I fear some of his own wild-fire is mixed with that sacred fire of zeal which comes from God. My dear brother, I want to be more like unto God, who sees and corrects all things that are amiss, and yet continues unmoved in his own nature. I want to be more like unto Jesus, God blessed for evermore! who sees all the quarrels and heart-risings of his children one amongst another, and yet bears with, and loves them still. My heart doth not reproach me, for my kindness and friendship with those that differ from me. I think I have been led by the word and Spirit of God into this part of my conduct. O remember, my dear brother, to exercise catholic love in all its branches. I love and long much to see you. I shall write, God willing, to Mr. WI find his spirit is also imbittered. May the Lord sweeten all your hearts! With hearty thanks for all favours, I am, my very dear brother, Most affectionately yours, in the glorious Jesus, G. W. LETTER XCIX. REV. JAMES HERVEY to a FRIEND. DEAR SIR, Weston Flavell, March, 1748. I am very much obliged for the present of your franks; they could never be more wanted, or more welcome. If you have not so much as you wish, to relieve the necessities of the poor, distribute from my stock. I am cloistered up in my chamber, and unacquainted with the distresses of my brethren. Lend me, therefore, your eye to discover proper objects, and your hand to deal about my little fund of charity. Do not forbid me to send a guinea in my next for this purpose: do not deny me the pleasure of becoming, through your means, an instrument of some little comfort to my afflicted fellow-creatures; and (what is a far more endearing consideration) to the friends, the brethren, the members of Him who died for my sins. If you have any other friend, to whose taste it may be agreeable, and in whose hands useful, I will empower you to make the present. I am, dear Sir, yours, JAMES HERVEY. LETTER C. JOHN HOWARD, the Philanthropist, to the REV. MR. SMITH of Bedford.-A letter from the heart of Russia. DEAR SIR, Moscow, Sept 7, 1781. I am persuaded a line will not be unacceptable even from such a vagrant. I have unremittedly pursued the object of my journey, and have looked into no palaces, or seen any curiosities; so my letters can afford little entertainment to my friends. I staid above three weeks at Petersburgh. I declined every honour that was offered me; and when pressed to have a soldier to accompany me, I declined that also: yet I fought my way pretty well, five hundred miles (and bad roads) in less than five days. I have a strong, yet light and easy carriage, which I happily bought for fifty rubles (about ten guineas). This city is situated in a fine plain, totally different from all others, as each house has a garden, which extends the city eight or ten miles, so that four and six horses are common in the streets. I content myself with a pair, though I think I have drove to-day near twenty miles, to see one prison and one hospital. I am told sad stories what I am to suffer by the cold; yet I will not leave this city till I have made repeated visits to the prisons and hospitals, as the first man in the kingdom assured me my publication would be translated into Russian. My next step is for Warsaw, about seven or eight hundred miles; yet every step being homeward, I have spirit to encounter it, though through the worst country in Europe. I bless God I am well, with calm, easy spirits. I had a fit of the ague a day or two before I set out from Petersburg, but I travelled it off, the nights last week being warm. I thought I could live where any men did live; but in this northern journey, especially in Sweden, I have been pinched:-no fruit, no garden-stuff; sour bread, sour milk: but in this city every luxury-even pine-apples and potatoes. Dear Sir, Your affectionate friend, JOHN HOWARD. LETTER CI. REV. JOHN NEWTON to the REV. MR. B MY DEAR FRIEND, July 7, 1778. I know not that I have any thing to say worth postage, though perhaps, had I seen you before you set off, something might have occurred which will not be found in my letter. Yet I write a line, |