“I will transcribe the Indian words as fast as I can. I writ to Mr. William Delamotte three weeks ago. If he did not receive the letter, it miscarried. I wish you could inform me, that I might write again.
“I have just now been talking to Mr. Godly, curate of Osset. (You know, I believe, that he is misnamed.) I was all on a tremble while I talked to him, and for a good while after. He took my reproof very uneasily. But, however, he trembled as well as me. I have lent him ‘The Country Parson’ to read; and, since he went away, I have been praying for him in agony. I seem to be full of hope, as if God would turn his heart; and O that He may! One of the wickedest women in all Osset is turned since I came down; and, I believe, she will make a thorough convert. She says, she is sure God sent me to turn her heart. To His holy name be all the glory! There is another poor soul too here, that is under the most severe agonies of repentance. Cease not to pray for these, and the rest of your Christian friends at Osset, who pray constantly for you.
“Last Sunday, I preached such a sermon at Wakefield church as has set almost all about us in a uproar. Some say, the devil is in me; others, that I am mad. Others say, no man can live up to such doctrine; and they never heard such before. Others, again, extol me to the sky. They say, it was the best sermon they ever heard in all their life; and that I ought to be a bishop.
“I believe, indeed, it went to the hearts of several persons; for I was enabled to speak with great authority and power; and I preached almost the whole sermon without book. There was a vast large congregation, and tears fell from many eyes. To-morrow, I preach there again.
“Every day, I undergo several changes within me. Now I am under sufferings, sometimes just ready to sink; then again I am filled with joy. Indeed, I receive so much pleasure in conversing with some Christians here, that I have need of sufferings to counterbalance it. Last Saturday night, we were sixteen that sat up till after twelve. We have to meet again to-night, after the rest are gone; and we shall pray for you, and the rest of our Christian friends everywhere. You would think yourself happy to be but one night with us.
“Give my sincere love to Mr. Hutton’s family, whom I never forget. Are they all well? The Lord bless them all! Greet brother Whitefield. My heart will be with you on the seas, and everywhere. Never be discouraged.
“Yours sincerely and affectionately,
“B. Ingham.”[73]
On May 24, 1738, Wesley, by simple “trust in Christ alone for salvation,” received “an assurance that Christ had taken away his sins.” This, to him, was a new experience; but, perhaps, not to Ingham. It is a well-known fact, that, Peter Böhler, who was now on his way to the Moravians in Georgia, was of the utmost service to Wesley in teaching him the doctrine of justification by faith only. Besides this, both Wesley and Ingham had been brought into close communion with the Moravian bishop, David Nitschmann, and his Christian fraternity, during their voyage across the Atlantic. In Georgia, also, they had met with the Moravian elder, the Rev. August Gottlieb Spangenberg, a man of high position among the Brethren. The result of the whole was, that Wesley and Ingham, on June 13, 1738, embarked for Germany, principally for the purpose of becoming better acquainted with the Moravian churches in that country.