accept of the assistance of lay preachers: and, in a few
WESLEY'S JOURNAL
Ave. 1789 stir up all parties, Christians or heathens, to worship God in spirit and in truth ; but the Church of England in particular ; to which they belonged from the beginning,
With this view I have uniformly gone on for fifty years, never varying from the doctrine of the Church at all; nor from her discipline, of choice, but of necessity: so, in a course of years, necessity was laid upon me (as I have proved elsewhere), 1. To preach in the open air.
2. To pray extempore. '3. To form societies.
4. To accept of the assistance of lay preachers: and, in a few other instances, to use such means as occurred, to prevent or remove evils that we either felt or feared,
Wesley Describes Himself at Eighty-five Sun, June 28.—In the conclusion of the morning service, we had a remarkable blessing: and the same in the evening, moving the whole congregation as the heart of one man.
This day I enter on my eighty-sixth year.
I now find I grow old:
1. My sight is decayed; so that I cannot read a small print, unless in a strong light.
My strength is decayed; so that I walk much slower than I did some years since.
3. My memory of names, whether of persons or places, is decayed; till I stop a little to recollect them.
What I should be afraid of, is, if I took thought for the morrow, that my body should weigh down my mind; and create either stubbornness, by the decrease of my understanding; or peevishness, by the increase of bodily infirmities: but Thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God.
Sat. Aug. 8.—I settled all my temporal business, and, in particular, chose a new person to prepare the Arminian
Magazine ; being obliged, however unwillingly, to drop Mr. O » for only these two reasons:
1. The errata
Painted in 1789 by William Hamilton, R. A.
(The original is now in National Portrait Gallery)
REV, JOHN WESLEY, A.M.