speak to them through an interpreter. The tongue, says
Jean Paul Richter, is eloquent only in its own language, and the heart
in its own religion. It certainly was not from lack of zeal and energy
that Wesley failed to accomplish much among the Indians. He flung
himself into the work with all his indomitable spirit and disregard for
trouble and pain. One of his biographers tells us that "he exposed
himself with the utmost indifference to every change of season and
inclemency of weather; snow and hail, storm and tempest, had no effect
on his iron body. He frequently lay down on the ground and slept all
night with his hair frozen to the earth; he would swim over rivers with
his clothes on and travel till they were dry, and all this without any
apparent injury to his health." It is no wonder that Wesley soon began
to regard himself as a man specially protected by divine power. He was
deeply, romantically superstitious. He commonly guided his course by
opening a page of the Bible and reading the first passage that met his
eye. He saw visions; he believed in omens. He tells us himself of the
instantaneous way in which some of his prayers for rescue from danger
were answered from above. Those who believe that the work Wesley had
to do was really great and beneficent work will hardly feel any regret
that such a man should have allowed himself to be governed {136} by
such ideas. It was necessary to the tasks he had to execute that he
should believe himself to bear a charmed life.

Wesley was very near getting married in Georgia. A clever and pretty
young woman in Savannah set herself at him. She consulted him about
her spiritual salvation, she dressed always in white because she
understood that he liked such simplicity of color, she nursed him when
he was ill. The governor of the colony favored the young lady's
intentions, which were indeed strictly honorable, being most distinctly
matrimonial. At one time it seemed very likely that the marriage would
take place, but Wesley's heart was evidently not in the affair. Some
of his colleagues told him plainly enough that they believed the young
lady to be merely playing a game, that she put on affection and
devotion only that she might put on a wedding-dress. Wesley consulted
some of the elders of the Moravian Church, and promised to abide by
their decision. Their advice was that he should go no further with the
young woman, and Wesley kept his word and refused to