Letter 403

CCCCII. — To the Same.

MY DEAR SISTER, LONDON, June 11, 1788.

YOU have indeed had a series of trials, one upon the back of another. It is well you know in whom you have believed; otherwise you would have been weary and faint in your mind. For it is not an easy thing always to remember, (then especially when we have most need of it,) that “the Lord loveth whom he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Who could believe it, if He had not told us so himself? It is well that He never fails to give us strength according to our day; and that we know these “light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

I am

Your affectionate brother

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CCCCIII. — To the Stewards of the Foundry.

MY DEAR BRETHREN, PEMBROKE, August 6, 1768.

THE thing you mention is of no small concern, and ought not to be determined hastily. Indeed, it would be easy to answer, if we considered only how to save money: But we are to consider also how to save souls. Now, I doubt whether we should act wisely in this respect were we to give up the chapel in Spitalfields. We have no other preaching-place in or near that populous quarter of the town; and a quarter which, upon one account, I prefer before almost any other; namely, that the people in general are more simple, and less confused by any other Preachers. I think, therefore, it would not be well to give up this, if we could gain a thousand pounds thereby. I should look upon it as selling the souls of men for money; which God will give us in due time without this. That many who live near the Foundry would be glad of it, I allow, because it would save them trouble.