One of Mr. Wesley's Letters.
By John Wesley
MY DEAR SISTER:—At length I have snatched an hour to repeat to you, in writing, the advices which I gave you before. 1. Keep that safe which God has given you: never let slip any blessing which you have received. Regard none who tell you, "you must lose it." No; you never need lose one degree of love. 2. You never will, provided you are a careful steward of the manifold gifts of God. To him that hath, that is, useth what he hath, it shall be given still, and that more abundantly. Therefore, 3. Use your every grace. Stir up the gift of God that is in you. Be zealous! Be active! Spare no one. Speak for God, wherever you are. But, meantime, 4. Be humble: let all that mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. And be clothed with humility. Pray that you may always feel that you are nothing, less than nothing, and vanity. In this spirit speak and do every thing, giving all the glory to Him that lives and rules in your heart by faith. Last night I was reading some advices of a French author, part of which may be of use to you. Only observe he is writing to one that had living faith, but was not perfected in love. "How can I distinguish pride from temptation to pride? It is extremely difficult to distinguish these, and still more so to lay down rules for doing it. Our eyes cannot penetrate the ground of our hearts. Pride and vanity are natural to us; and, for that reason, nothing is more constantly at hand, nothing less observed, than their effects. The grand rule is, to sound sincerely the ground of our hearts, when we are not in the hurry of temptation: for if, on inquiry, we find that it loves obscurity and silence; that it dreads applause and distinction; that it esteems the virtues of others, and excuses their faults with mildness; that it easily pardons injuries; that it fears contempt less and less; that it sees a falsehood and baseness in pride, and a true nobleness and greatness in humility; that it knows and reveres the inestimable riches of the cross, and the humiliations of Jesus Christ; that it fears the lustre of those virtues which are admired by men, and loves those that are more secret; that it draws more comfort even from its own defects, through the abasement which they occasion; and that it prefers any degree of compunction before all the light in the world—then you may trust that all the motions you feel tending to pride or vanity, whether they are sudden, or are thrust against you for some time, are not sin, but temptation. And then it may be the best to turn from and despise them, instead of giving them weight by fixing your attention upon them."—Guide to Perfection.