rest there.

It was precisely the same motive which led Wesley to the various
separations which, to his sorrow, he was obliged to make from those who
had been his fellow-workers. He has been accused of being a quarrelsome
man, a man with whom it was not easy to be on good terms. The accusation
is unjust. Never was a man more ready to forgive injuries, more ready to
own his failings, more firm to his friends, and more patient with his
foes.

Nevertheless it is an undoubted fact that he was frequently brought into
collision with men whom he would have been the first to own as God's
faithful servants--with William Law, with the Moravians, with Whitefield
and the Calvinists, and with several of the Evangelical parish
clergymen. It also cannot be denied that he showed some abruptness--nay,
rudeness--in his communications with some of these.

But in each and all of these cases the clue to his conduct is still the
same; his one desire was to do all the good he could to the souls of
men, and to that great object friends, united action, and even common
politeness must give way. To come to details. In 1738 he wrote an angry
letter, and in 1756 an angry pamphlet, to William Law. Both these
effusions were hasty and indiscreet; but, in spite of his indiscretion
and discourtesy, it is easy to trace both in the letter and the pamphlet
the one motive which actuated him. Law was far more than a match for
Wesley in any purely intellectual dispute. But Wesley's fault, whatever
it may have been, was a fault of the head, not of the heart. It is
thoroughly characteristic of the generous and forgiving nature of the
man that, in spite of their differences, Wesley constantly alluded to
Law in his sermons, and always in terms of the warmest commendation.

The same motive which led Wesley to dispute with Law actuated him in
his separation from the Moravians. In justice to that exemplary body it
must be remembered that they were not well represented in London when
Wesley split from them. The mischievous notion that it was contrary to
the Gospel for a man to search the Scriptures, to pray, to
communicate--in fact, to use any ordinances--before he had faith, that
it was his duty simply to sit still and wait till this was given him,
would, if it had gained ground, have been absolutely fatal to Wesley's
efforts. He could not even tacitly countenance those who held such
tenets without grievous hindrance to his work.[720] One is thankful to
learn th