to have bread on such terms is the next degree of
wretchedness to having none at all."

"All this, thank God," said Mr. Wesley, "does not in the least sink my
wife's spirits. She bears it with a courage which becomes her, and which
I expected from her."

Mrs. Wesley's meditations on the matter carry with them an unchanging
serenity of mind. "That man whose heart is penetrated with Divine love,
and enjoys the manifestations of God's blissful presence, is happy, let
his outward condition be what it will. This world, this present state of
things, is but for a time. What is now future will be present, as what
is already past once was. And then, as Pascal observes, a little earth
thrown on our cold head will for ever determine our hopes and condition.
Nor will it signify much who personated the prince or the beggar, since,
with respect to the exterior, all must stand on the same level
after death."

In a very dark hour she writes: "But even in this low ebb of fortune I
am not without some kind interval...I adore and praise the unsearchable
wisdom and boundless goodness of Almighty God for this dispensation of
His providence towards me. For I clearly discern there is more of mercy
in this disappointment of my hopes than there would have been in
permitting me to enjoy all that I desired, because it hath given me a
sight and sense of some sins which I had not before. I would not have
imagined I was in the least inclined to idolatry, and covetousness, and
want of practical subjection to the will of God.... Again, the furnace
of affliction which now seems so hot and terrible to nature, had nothing
more than a lambent flame, which was not designed to consume us, but
only to purge away our dross, to purify and prepare the mind for its
abode among those blessed ones that passed through the same trials
before us into the celestial paradise.... How shall we then adore and
praise what we cannot here apprehend aright! How will love and joy work
in the soul! But I cannot express it; I cannot conceive it."

VIII.

A NEW DEPARTURE.

Where the great religious movement of the last century in England is to
be traced to any human influence, the mother of John and Charles Wesley
must have a large share of the sacred honour. This will be found to
fall to her by right, not only on account of that profound religious
education she imparted to her children, but also by reason of the
peculiar direction which she gave it. Even in respect