Wesley's Last Entries

Monday, 18.--No coach going out for Lynn today, I was obliged to take a postchaise. But at Dereham no horses were to be had, so we were obliged to take the same horses to Swaffham. A congregation was ready here that filled the house and seemed quite ready to receive instruction.

But here neither could we procure any posthorses, so that we were obliged to take a single-horse chaise. The wind, with mizzing rain, came full in our faces, and we had nothing to screen us from it; I was thoroughly chilled from head to foot before I came to Lynn. But I soon forgot this little inconvenience, for which the earnestness of the congregation made me large amends.

Tuesday, 19.--In the evening all the clergymen in the town, except one who was lame, were present at the preaching. They are all prejudiced in favor of the Methodists, as indeed are most of the townsmen; they give a fair proof by contributing so much to our Sunday schools that there is nearly twenty pounds in hand.

Wednesday, 20.--I had appointed to preach at Diss, a town near Scoleton; but the difficulty was where I could preach. The minister was willing I should preach in the church but feared offending the bishop, who, going up to London, was within a few miles of the town. But a gentleman asking the bishop whether he had any objection to it, was answered, "None at all." I think this church is one of the largest in this county. I suppose it has not been so filled these hundred years. This evening and the next I preached at Bury to a deeply attentive congregation, many of whom know in whom they have believed. So that here we have not lost all our labor.

Friday, 22.--We returned to London.

Sunday, 24.--l explained, to a numerous congregation in Spitalfields church, "the whole armor of God." St. Paul's, Shadwell, was still more crowded in the afternoon, while I enforced that important truth, "One thing is needful"; and I hope many, even then, resolved to choose the better part.