Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A. (1771 Vol 1).djvu/39

 and, I hope, I have seen the effects of my doctrine in the reformation of some of their lives. Remember me always in your prayers. Accept my hearty thanks for all favours, and believe me to be,

Ever your's, G. W.    LETTER XXV. To Mrs. H.

Dear Mrs. H.               Oxon, July 14, 1737.

IF you remember, I promised you a long and particular letter when I was at Gloucester, and nothing hinders but I may now perform it. Permit me then first, to begin this, as I would all my letters, with thanks to you and kind Mr. H. for your inexpressible favours conferred on the most unworthy of my master's servants; and, withall, to assure you, how incessantly I pray, that the of all grace and mercy, for the sake of his dear Son, would reward you in spirituals, for what you have done to me in temporals, and feed your soul with his heavenly graces, as plentifully as you have fed my body with nourishing food. But as, in all probability, this will be the last letter I shall write to dear Mrs. H. before I sail, what can I fill the remainder with better, than by exhorting you, to lay aside every weight, particularly the sin that does most easily beset you, and so run with patience the race set before you. I say, the sin that most easily besets; for unless we lay the ax to the root, unless we sincerely resolve in the strength of to subdue our favourite, our darling passion, and spare not one Agag, though ever so engaging, ever so beautiful, all our other sacrifices will avail us nothing. Suppose therefore, for instance, be our greatest foible. A sincere person will never cease night or day, till he is made meek and lowly in heart. But if it be asked, how he shall do this? I answer, first, let him consider how odious it is in the sight of, and how contrary to the lamb-like meekness of the holy. Secondly, Let him reflect how troublesome it must be to others, (for alas what unnecessary disorders, what needless troubles doth the passionate person occasion to all that are round about