In South Carolina. 87 



Georgia— the case of a clergyman in South Carolina 

 who had married several of his parishioners without 

 either banns or license, and declared he would do so 

 still. He left Savannah on Tuesday, April 12, 1737, 

 and landed in Charleston on Thursday, the 14th. Mr. 

 Garden gave him assurances that no such irregularity 

 should take place in the future, and treated him with 

 great kindness and consideration. By his invitation 

 Mr. Wesley preached on Sunday, the 17th of April, 

 his first sermon in St. Philip's Church, on these words 

 from the epistle for the day: " Whatsoever is born of 

 God overcometh the world " (1 John v. 4) — setting 

 forth (1) the unlimited universality implied in the 

 term "whatsoever;" (2) the spiritual state implied in 

 the expression, "is born of God; " (3) the privilege of 

 every one that is in that state, viz., courage and strength 

 to face and subdue whatever the world can lay in the 

 way either to allure or to fright him from keeping 

 God's commandments. To that plain account of the 

 Christian state which these words naturally led him 

 to give, a man of education and character, at the end 

 of the discourse, seriously objected — what indeed is a 

 great truth — "Why, if this be Christianity, a Chris- 

 tian must have more courage than Alexander the 

 Great." On the following Friday, the 22d, he had the 

 pleasure of meeting with the clergy of South Caro- 

 lina at their annual visitation, and assisted in the aft- 

 ernoon at a conversation for several hours on "Christ 

 our [Righteousness," such as he had not heard at any 

 visitation in England, or hardly on any other occasion. 

 The Rev. Thomas Thompson, minister of St. Bar- 

 tholomew's, near Ponpon, learning on Saturday, the 

 23d, that Mr. Wesley had been disappointed of a pas- 

 sage home by water, kindly offered him one of his 



