“1. For God’s sake, for the honour of the gospel, for your country’s sake, and for the sake of your own souls, beware of bribery. Before you see me again, the trial will come at the general election for members of parliament. On no account, take money, or money’s worth. Keep yourselves pure. Give, not sell, your vote. Touch not the accursed thing, lest it bring a blast upon you and your household.
“2. Have nothing to do with stolen goods. Neither sell nor buy anything that has not paid the duty. No, not if you could have it at half price. Defraud not the king, any more than your fellow subject. Never think of being religious unless you are honest. What has a thief to do with religion? Herein mind not men, but the word of God; and whatever others do, keep yourselves pure.
“3. Lose no opportunity of receiving the sacrament. All who have neglected this have suffered loss. Most of them are as dead as stones; therefore be you constant herein, not only for example, but for the sake of your own souls.
“4. To the public, constantly add the private means of grace, particularly prayer and reading. Most of you have been greatly wanting in this; and, without this, you can never grow in grace. You may as well expect a child to grow without food, as a soul without private prayer; and reading is an excellent help to this. I advise you to read, in particular, constantly and carefully, the New Testament; ‘Lessons for Children,’ which are all the choicest parts of the Old Testament, with short notes; ‘Instructions for Children,’ which are a body of divinity for plain people; and that golden treatise, ‘The Christian Pattern’; the ‘Plain Account of the Methodists.’ No Methodist ought to be without these, nor the ‘Primitive Physic,’ which (if you have any regard for your bodies, or your children) ought to be in every house. To all that can understand it, I recommend one book more, ‘The Preservative against unsettled Notions’; a book which, by the blessing of God, may help you from being tossed about with divers winds of doctrines. Permit me to give you one advice more under this head: do not encourage young raw men to exhort among you. It does little good either to you or them. Rather, in every society, where you have not an experienced preacher, let one of the leaders read the Notes, or the Christian Library. By this the wisest among you may profit much; a thousand times more than by listening to forward youths, who neither speak English nor common sense.
“5. Let all of you, who have faith, meet in band, without excuse and without delay. There has been a shameful neglect of this. Remove this scandal. As soon as the assistant has fixed your band, make it a point of conscience never to miss without an absolute necessity; and the preacher’s meeting you all together one night out of two will be an additional blessing.
“6. If you constantly meet your band, I make no doubt that you will constantly meet your class; indeed, otherwise you are not of our society. Whoever misses his class thrice together thereby excludes himself; and the preacher that comes next ought to put out his name. I wish you would consider this. Halt not between two. Meet the brethren, or leave them. It is not honest to profess yourself of a society, and not observe the rules of it. Be therefore consistent with yourself. Never miss your class till you miss it for good and all. And when you meet it, be merciful after your power; give as God enables you. If you are not in pressing want, give something, and you will be no poorer for it. Grudge not, fear not; lend unto the Lord, and He will surely repay. If you earn but three shillings a week, and give a penny out of it, you will never want. But I do not say this to you who have ten or fifteen shillings a week, and give only a penny! To see this has often grieved my spirit. I have been ashamed for you, if you have not been ashamed for yourself. Why, by the same rule that you give a penny, that poor man should give a peppercorn! O be ashamed before God and man! Be not straitened in your own bowels. Give in proportion to your substance. You can better afford a shilling than he a penny. This is more to him than that to you. Open your eyes, your heart, your hand. If this one rule was observed, throughout England, we should need no other collection. It would soon form a stock sufficient to relieve all that want, and to answer all occasions. Many of these occasions are now exceeding pressing, and we are nowise able to answer them; so that the cause of God suffers, and the children of God, and that without remedy.
“7. This is, in great measure, owing to our not considering ourselves (all the Methodists) as one body. Such undoubtedly they are throughout Great Britain and Ireland; and, as such, they were considered at our last conference. We then seriously considered the heavy burden which now lies on our brethren in various parts. When we could hire no place that could contain the congregation, they were constrained to build; but hereby they were unavoidably involved in debt, some of them to the amount of several hundred pounds. The assistants were desired to lay this case before all our brethren in England, and to receive what each of them were willing to give, either at that time, or at Easter, or Midsummer. But the greater part of them thought no more about it. Four or five of them did, and brought in all about £200 at our last conference. This was divided among our societies who were most distressed; and all the assistants were desired, when they visit the classes at Christmas, to ask each particular person, poor or rich, ‘What will you give towards the relief of the brethren? Give either now, or at Easter, or at Midsummer; it is all one.’ If this be done in good earnest, I trust, in two or three years, all our societies may be out of debt. And by this shall all men know whose disciples we are, because we love one another.
“8. I mention but one thing more. Let all, who are able, constantly attend the morning preaching. Whenever the Methodist preachers or people leave off this, they will soon sink into nothing.
“I am, my dear brethren, your affectionate brother,
“John Wesley.”[592]