412 History of Methodism 



means of any sort in place of the all-quickening Spirit ? 

 And I turned aside into a thick wood, saying to myself, 

 * There is none here but God only, and I cannot thus 

 uncomfortable go back to my circuit; I will even go 

 to Him alone who has all power in heaven and earth, 

 and who has called the heavy-laden unto him that they 

 may find rest. Jesus, Master, heal my blindness! 

 Give me faith and love ! ' I still remember how, as I 

 hitched my horse, I felt to pity him for the long fast 

 he should have to keep before he might be unloosed. 

 But it was not so. I had scarcely fallen on my knees, 

 with my face to the ground, before Heb. xii. 18, 19, 

 22-24, was applied with power to my mind: Tor ye 

 aie not come unto the mount that might be touched, 

 and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and 

 darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, 

 and the voice of words. . . . But ye are come unto 

 Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the 

 heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company 

 of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the 

 first-born which are written in heaven, and to God, 

 the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made 

 perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Cove- 

 nant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh 

 better things than that of Abel.' In that moment how 

 spiritual seemed religion, how intimate the connection 

 between earth and heaven, grace and glory, the Church 

 militant and the Church triumphant! And it seemed 

 to challenge my consent to leave the one for the other; 

 as if it had been proposed to me, ' Would you give up 

 all who are below for those who are above, and count 

 it now a high privilege to have come literally and ab- 

 solutely to mingle with the innumerable company of 

 angels, and spirits of just men made perfect, in the 



