The Scold Converted.
The late Rev. John Wesley relates the following circumstance in his Journal of 1741:— “Wednesday, 9th. I rode over to a neighbouring town to wait on a Justice of the Peace, a man of ⟨candor⟩ and understanding, before whom, I was informed, their angry neighbours had carried whole waggon load of these new heretics, (the Methodists.) But when he asked what they had done, there was a deep silence: for that was ⟨a⟩ point their conductors had forgot! ‘At length ⟨one⟩ said, ‘Why they pretend to be better than other people, and besides, they pray from morning to night.’ Mr. S. asked, ‘But have they done nothing besides?’ ‘Yes sir, (said an old man,) an’t please your worship they have converted ⟨my⟩ wife.— Till she went among them she had such ⟨a⟩ tongue!— and now she is as quiet as a lamb.’ ‘Carry them back, carry them back, replied the justice, ‘and let then convert all the scolds ⟨in⟩ the town.”
The Remarkable Conversion of Lord⟨******.⟩
One of the former lords, Say and Sele, ⟨having⟩ invited good old Mr. Dodd, who lived in ⟨the⟩ same neighbourhood, to dine with him; dinner not being quite ready, his lordship asked him ⟨to⟩ take a walk in the garden to fill up that ⟨interval.⟩ Accordingly they both went, and after viewing its productions and rarities, his lordship exclaimed thus: “Well Mr. Dodd, you see I want for nothing: I have all that heart can wish for.” But Mr. Dodd musing and making no reply, his lordship asked him the reason. “Why please you lordship,” added the venerable man; “I have been thinking that a man may have these, and ⟨go⟩ to hell after all.” The words powerfully struck him, and terminated in a sound conversion.— Evangelical Magazine, 1804.
