I can by no means regret either the trouble or expense which attended this little journey. It opened me a way into, as it were, a new world where the land, the buildings, the people, the customs, were all such as I had never seen before. But as those with whom I conversed were of the same spirit as my friends in England, I was as much at home in Utrecht and Amsterdam, as in Bristol and London. Sunday, 6. -- We rejoiced to meet once more with our English friends in the new chapel, who were refreshed with the account of the gracious work which God is working in Holland also. Thursday, December 18. -- I spent two hours with that great man, Dr. Johnson, who is sinking into the grave by a gentle decay. 1784. Monday, April 5. -- I was surprised when I came to Chester to find that there also morning preaching was quite left off, for this worthy reason: "Because the people will not come, or, at least, not in the winter." If so, the Methodists are a fallen people. Here is proof. They have "lost their first love," and they never will or can recover it till they "do the first works." |