Wesley’s Labor Colony

Tuesday, November 25 (London).—After several methods proposed for employing those who were out of business, we determined to make a trial of one which several of our brethren recommended to us. Our aim was, with as little expense as possible, to keep them at once from want and from idleness, in order to which ²²     Correct , we took twelve of the poorest and a teacher into the society room where they were employed for four months, till spring came on, in carding and spinning of cotton. And the design answered: they were employed and maintained with very little more than the produce of their own labor.

Friday, 28.—A gentleman came to me full of good-will, to exhort me not to leave the Church; or (which was the same thing in his account) to use extemporary prayer, which, said he, “I will prove to a demonstration to be no prayer at all.  For you cannot do two things at once. But thinking how to pray and praying are two things. Ergo, you cannot both think and pray at once.” Now, may it not be proved by the salf-same ³³     Correct demonstration that praying by a form is no prayer at all? E.g. You cannot do two things at once.  But reading and praying are two things. Ergo, you cannot both read and pray at once.” Q.E.D.