Page:Susanna Wesley (Clarke 1886).djvu/60

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48
SUSANNA WESLEY.


authority, however, to examine you ; but if any should be so impertinently curious to do it, put them civilly off, if you can; but, if you cannot, resolutely tell them you will not satisfy their unreasonable desires; and be sure you never, to gain the favour of any, hazard losing the favour of God, which you will do if you speak falsely. To God's merciful protection I commit you.

"Susanna Wesley."

The next letter is not dated, but was written either during the same or the following year:

Dear Sammy, "'Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.'

"Examine well your heart, and observe its inclinations, particularly what the general temper of your mind is; for, let me tell you, it is not a fit of devotion now and then speaks a man a Christian, but it is a mind universally and generally disposed to all the duties of Christianity in their proper times, places, &c. For instance, in the morning or evening, or any other time when occasion is offered, a good Christian will be cheerfully disposed to retire from the world, that he may offer to his Creator his sacrifice of prayer and praise, and will account it his happiness, as well as his duty, so to do. When he is in the world, if he have business, he will follow it diligently, as knowing that he must account with God at night for what he has done in the day, and that God expects we should be faithful in our calling as well as devout in our closets. A Christian ought, and in the general does, converse with the world like a stranger in an inn: he will use