John Wesley

“ Unspeakable misery will arise in the world from this baleful fountain. (Offences are all things whereby any one is turned out of, or hindered in, the ways of God.) For it must be that offences come. Such is the nature of things; such the wickedness, folly and weakness of mankind. But Wo to that man, miserable is that man, by whom the offence cometh. Wherefore if thy hand, thy foot, thine eye cause thee to offend—If the most dear enjoyment, the most beloved and useful person, turn thee out of, or hinder thee in the way, pluck it out, cut them off, and cast them from thee. ”

“ However, if thou wast not called before, I call thee now, in the name of Christ: take up thy cross and follow him. Reason no more with flesh and blood, but now resolve to cast in thy lot, with the most despised, the most infamous of his followers, the filth and off-scouring of the world. I call thee in particular, who didst once strengthen their hands, but since art drawn back. Take courage! Be strong! Fulfil their joy, by returning with heart and hand. Let it appear, thou departedst for a season, that they might receive thee again for ever. O be not disobedient to the heavenly calling! ”

“ If you would die like a Christian, must you not endeavour to fill their minds with your dying thoughts? Must you not tell them that very soon the world will signify no more to them than it does to you? And that there is a vanity, a littleness in the things of this life, which only dying men feel as they ought?
Will you not tell them, that all your own failings, the irregularity of your life, the folly of your tempers, and your failure of Christian perfection, has been owing to wrong opinions of the value of worldly things? ”

“ Thus both will be worse, while they seek to upbraid each other, and not each to amend one. Unwise man! Unwise woman! Why hast thou not the greatest care, to save thy own soul? Couldst thou mark what was good for another’s disease, and not what was good for thy own? Brethren, sisters, let this be altered in us. If thou be an husband, have more care to know that, for which thy own soul must answer, than what lies to the account of another. So thou that art a wife; and woe to that man or woman, who sees not more failings in him or herself than in the yoke-fellow. ”

“ Lay out nothing to gratify the pride of life, to gain the admiration or praise of men. This motive of expence is frequently interwoven with one or both of the former. Men are expensive in diet, or apparel or furniture, not barely to please their appetite, or to gratify their eye, their imagination, but their vanity too. So long as thou dost well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee. So long as thou art cloathed in purple and fine linen, and farest sumptuously every day, no doubt many will applaud thy elegance of taste, thy generosity and hospitality. ”

“ Let us all cast aside from this very hour, whatever does not become men and women professing godliness: whatever does not spring from the love and fear of God, and minister thereto. Let our seriousness shine before men, not our dress: let all who see us know that we are not of this world. Let our adorning be that which fadeth not away, even righteousness and true holiness. If ye regard not weakening my hands and grieving my spirit, yet grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Do you ask, “But what shall I do with the gay or costly apparel, and with the ornaments I have already? ”

“ We must therefore, if we would conceive our true state, our real good and evil, look farther than these dim eyes of flesh can carry our views. We must, with the eyes of faith, penetrate into the invisible world, the world of spirits, and consider our order and condition among them; a world which, as St. John speaks, hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. For it is there, among eternal beings, that we must take an eternal fellowship, or fall into a kingdom of darkness and everlasting misery. ”

“ And it is a sin against the whole nature of religion, not to make it the whole measure and reason of all your peace and enjoyment in every occurrence of life.
If you must amuse yourself with a volume of plays, because you are laid up with a broken leg, or have lost a friend, you are as far from wisdom as a child that is to be made quiet with a rattle, and as far from religion as those who worship idols; nay, to seek to such things for relief and refreshment, is like applying to the devil in distress. ”

“ A man may lawfully think another woman a better woman than his own wife. But he may not love another woman, tho’ more virtuous, above his own, tho’ less virtuous. This is the effect of matrimonial love, to settle the heart of each upon the other, above all in the world besides. It admits of none equal in affection, but places the yoke-fellow next to our own soul. Nor will it bear the desire of change, but so links their hearts together, that in this respect they are only dear to each other. ”

“ Bless God then, not because you have spare time, for that you have none, but that you have time to employ in the best ways that you can find; that whilst others are oppressed with burdens, and worn out with slavery, you have time to think upon the greatest and best of things; to enlighten your mind, to correct the disorder of your heart, to study the laws of God, to contemplate the wonders of his providence, to convince yourself of the vanity of the world, and to delight your soul with the great and glorious things which God has prepared for those that love him. ”

“ Thus, we are to use our understanding, our imagination, our memory, wholly to the glory of him that gave them. Thus our will is to be wholly given up to him, and all our affections to be regulated as he directs. We are to love and hate, to rejoice and grieve, to desire and shun, to hope and fear, according to the rule which he prescribes, whose we are, and whom we are to serve in all things. Even our thoughts are not our own in this sense: they are not at our own disposal: but for every deliberate motion of our mind, we are accountable to our great Master. ”

“ Is the prisoner in a dream, when he imagines himself in open fields and fine groves? And canst thou think thy immortal spirit is awake, while it is delighting itself in the shadows and bubbles of worldly happiness?
For if it be true, that man is upon his trial, if the trial is for eternity, if life is but a vapour, what is there that deserves a serious thought, but how to get well out of the world, and make it a right passage to our eternal state? ”

“ Her words to himself should neither be sharp, sullen, passionate, not rude, careless or contemptuous: such as shew neither anger, nor neglect, but all lowliness and quietness of affection. What kind of words would you dislike from a servant or child? Those must you not give your husband. For the same duty of fear is in the same words, and with the same plainness enjoined to thee that is to them. Indeed a wife, as I observed before, may be more familiar: yet there is an excess of familiarity which is blame-worthy. Why should a woman be so over-bold as to call her husband, Tom, Dick, Ned? ”

“ The world is full as important in its pleasures as in its cares; there is no more wisdom in the one than in the other. And the man who, by the cares and business of the world is made less affected to the things of God, is no wiser than he who takes his delight in running foxes and hares out of breath.
For there is no wisdom in any thing but religion. Nor is any way of life less vain than another, but as it is made serviceable to piety, and conspires with the designs of religion, to raise mankind to a participation and enjoyment of the divine nature. ”

“ Great part of the world is doomed to toil and slavery; they have it not in their power to chuse any other way of life, and their labour is therefore an acceptable service to God, because it is such as their state requires. Happy are you therefore, if you knew your happiness, who have it in your power to be always doing the best things; who, free from labour and hardships, are at liberty to chuse the best ways of life, to study all the arts of self-improvement, to practise all the ways of doing good, and to spend your time in all the noblest instances of piety, humility, charity and devotion! ”

“ For as all sin directly tends, both to destroy our peace with God, by setting him at open defiance, to banish peace from our own breasts, and to set every man’s sword against his neighbour: so whatever prevents or removes sin, does in the same degree promote peace, both peace in our own soul, peace with God, and peace with one another. Such are the genuine fruits of this design, even in the present world. But why should we confine our views to the narrow bounds of time and space? Rather pass over these into eternity. ”

“ Have we read or heard of any person since the apostles, who testified the gospel of the grace of God, through so widely extended a space, through so large a part of the habitable world? Have we read or heard of any person who called so many thousands, so many myriads of sinners to repentance? Above all, have we read or heard of any, who has been a blessed instrument in his hand of bringing so many sinners from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God? It is true, were we to talk thus to the gay world, we should be judged to speak as barbarians. ”

“ For what can be a greater self-denial, or more contradictory to all our natural sentiments, than to live and govern ourselves by a happiness that is to be had in God alone? A happiness which our senses, our old guides, neither see, nor feel, nor taste, nor perceive: a happiness which gives us neither figure, nor dignity, nor power, nor glory, among one another?
Look at man in his natural state, acting by the judgment of his senses, following the motions of his nature; and you will see him acting as if the world was full of infinite sorts of happiness. ”

“ Passion may disorder our bodies, waste our spirits, and leave pains in our heads; but it leaves greater marks of injury in our better parts, as it throws us into a state of madness, and banishes the Holy Spirit of peace, and gentleness, and prepares us for the suggestions of the spirit of darkness. Grief may hurt our eyes, but it much more hurts our souls, as it sinks them into a state of gloom and darkness, which expels and quenches the Spirit of God; for light may as well unite with darkness, as the Spirit of God dwell with the gloomy dulness and horror of stupid grief. ”

“ Remember, that blood heated with any passion, is like blood heated with liquor, and that the grossness of gluttony is no greater a contrariety to religion, than the politeness of pride or vanity.
I have been the longer on this subject, trying to represent the weakness and corruption of our nature, because so far only as we see this, can we see the necessity of denying ourselves. This would be needless, if we were wise and good; but if we see that our whole nature is in a disorder, that our light is darkness, our wisdom foolishness, our judgments as gross and blind as our appetites ”

“ So we justify ourselves in one sin, by adding a second to it! We excuse the want of love in ourselves, by laying the blame on others. To colour our own devilish temper, we pronounce our brethren children of the devil. O beware of this! And if you are already taken in the snare, escape out of it as soon as possible. Go and learn that truly Catholic love, which is not rash or hasty in judging: that love which thinketh no evil, which believeth and hopeth all things: which makes all the allowances for others, that we desire others should make for us. ”

“ It does not leave us to grovel on in the desires of the flesh, to cast about for worldly happiness, and wander in darkness and exile from God: but the sole design of it is, to lead us from all thoughts of rest here, to separate us from worldly tempers, to deliver us from the folly of our passions, the slavery of our own natures, the power of evil spirits, and unite us to God, the true fountain of real good. ”

“ If ye must be distinguished, whether ye will or no, let this be the distinguishing mark of a Methodist, “He censures no man behind his back: by this fruit ye may know him.” What a blessed effect of this self-denial should we quickly feel in our hearts? How would our peace flow as a river, when we thus followed peace with all men? How would the love of God abound in our own souls, while we thus confirmed our love to our brethren? ”

“ First, to the souls, by provoking each other on all occasions, to inward and outward holiness. The husband must further the wife in all goodness, and the wife the husband: for she has also liberty to stir up her husband, by intreaty and fair means. And as they have special opportunity, so they should be always ready, with special diligence, to provoke one another to love and to good works. O how sweet is the society when they thus watch all occasions to further each other in godliness! ”

“ Thou knowest I do this, in obedience to thy word, as thou commandest, and because thou commandest it. Let this, I beseech thee, be an holy sacrifice, acceptable thro’ Jesus Christ! And give me a witness in myself, that for this labour of love, I shall have a recompence, when thou rewardest every man according to his works.” Now if your conscience bear you witness in the Holy Ghost, that this prayer is well pleasing to God, then have you no reason to doubt, but that expence is right and good, and such as will never make you ashamed. ”