Concerning Your Behaviour in Your Circuit, or Place Where You Exercise Your Ministry
1. Never disappoint a place; this would be contrary to your covenant with God, your agreement with your brethren, and your engagements to the people. Keep your own watch always to true time, and begin precisely at the time appointed. Never be a mintite later than true time, except in the country, where there is no public clock; then five minutes may be allowed for the difference between clocks and watches. But these five minutes may be as well before as after common time in other places. Do not many preachers, of all denominations, sin against God and their own souls, by not attending to this? Let us consider this subject. Suppose preaching be published for seven o’clock, and you go not in for five,*ten, or fifteen minutes after; what can your congregation think of you? You publish preaching for such a time, and you do not come in till considerably after; and this is your usual custom. Then (harsh as the saying may appear) you are certainly an habitual and public liar; and though such conduct may pass without .much reprehension from the good-natured people; can you imagine that there is no enormity in it in the sight of the God of truth? Surely you cannot. I never knew a preacher who acted in this way who did not lose the confidence of the people to such a degree as essentially to injure his public usefulness. Add to this, that congregations are ever ruined by such conduct. A Methodist preacher who acts thus, breaks that rule which, on his admission into the connexion, he solemnly promised to keep:” Be punctual; do every thing exactly at the time.** See Rule 10, of the twelve rules of a Helper. How can he answer this to God, to his conscience, to his brethren, and to the people? A mere subterfuge or an excuse increases the sin.
2. Be punctual in getting in proper time to the place where you are to dine and lodge. Do not make a whole family wait upon you. This is both injustice and insolence. While I readily grant, with our blessed Lord, that the labourer is worthy of his meat; yet he should certainly come to receive it in due time: and he who habitually neglects this, disappointing and confusing the families wherever he comes, is not worthy of a morsel of bread. I have known some, of more than common ministerial abilities, lose their importance, and ruin themselves in the opinion of the people, by their want of punctuality in this respect.
3. Never leave any place you visit, without reading a portion of Scripture, and prajdng with the family: and seize the most convenient time for family prayer in the houses where you lodge. Just before they sit down to meat is, in my opinion, the best time: then the several members of the family are generally present. But I have often observed.
that one, and another, after having hurried down their victaab, have either gone, or have been called away to business; so that before the whole family had finished their meal, one third of the members of, it were not to be found. There are, it is true, some families so well regulated, that this secession is never permitted; yet, even among these, I have always found it the best way to have prayer before meals, and especially at the breakfast hour. Should you be invited to any place where you are not permitted to pray with the family, never go thither again, and give them your reason. An ambassador of God should be transacting the business of his Master whithersoever he goes; and where he is not permitted to do it, there Grod has not sent him. Be steady, keep a good conscience, and a good conscience will keep you.
4. If you wish to keep a good conscience, you must walk as in the presence of God. Extremes beget extremes. Take heed then, that while you avoid levity on the one hand, you fall not into souJr godliness on the other. There are some who have the unhappy art of making a jest out of everything; and even applying Scripture in this way. Such conduct is execrable. There are others, who, being of an unhappy cast of mind, through a kind of natural or factitious melancholy, strip a man of salvation for a smile, and condemn him to the pit for being dieerfol. Avoid both these extremes, and remember that levity will ape religious cheerfulness, and sourness of temper will endeavour to pass itself off for Christian gravity. But do not judge from such appearances. There are some who are naturally of a quiet, grave turn of mind; which, in general, gains them credit for much more godliness than they possess. There are some who are naturiiQy of a merry, volatile spirit. These often get credit for less religion than they enjoy. Mr. Whitfield once judiciously observed on this subject, that an ounce of grace went farther in some than a pound in others. For light on this, and many other matters of importance, remember that every human spirit has its own peculiar, natural CHARACTERISTIO which was given it by its Creator; and which he never changes, nor designs should be changed. The business of divine grace in converting the soul, is not to destroy its natural characteristics; but to purify, refine, and adapt their vast varieties to the innumerable purposes of his wisdom and goodness displayed in their creation.
5. Tell your secret trials and temptations to very few. Your weakness, &c., should be known only to God and yourself. No one should be trasted, except that friend whom you know well, and to whom you can at all times trust even your life. I have known some who were telling their trials, weaknesses, &c., everywhere; the consequence was, they were despised or pitied, without being esteemed.
6. Wherever you go, discountenance that disp graceful custom properly enough termed Biblio* mancy; i.e., divination by the Bible. I need scarcely observe, that this consists in what is called dipping into the Bible, taking passages of Scripture at hazard, and drawing indications thence concerning the present and future state of the soul. This is a scandal to Christianity. So also are those rep ligious trifles, impiously and ominously called Scripture Cards. Thank God! these have never been very common among us, and are certainly not of Methodist growth. In an evil hour they were first introduced; and have since been criminally tolerated. I have found them the constant companions of religious gossips, and have seen them drawn for the purpose of showing the success of journeys, enterprizes, &c. Very great mischief they have done to my own knowledge; and sensible persons have through them been led to despise the whole of that syBtem firom which they never sprang, on which they have n«ver been engrafted, and in which they have never been more than barely tolerated. Giving the authors of them all the credit we can for the goodness of their intention, we cannot help saying of their productions (and this is giving them the very best character they deserve) that they are the drivellings of religious nonage, or of piety in superannuation. I do not find that Mr. Wesley ever made, used, or appved of these things; but as they were tolerated in his time, they have been attributed to himself. Hence the following calumny in a late publication, the Encyclopsedia Perthensis; -’ We have heard it affirmed (say the editors), that those well-meaning people called Methodists have long practised Bibliomancy, with regard to the future state of their souls; but that some of their members having been driven to despair by texts occurring to them, that threatened the most awful judgments; their late pastor, Mr. Wesley, to prevent such fatal consequences from recurring, improved upon this system of sacred lottery, by printing several packa of cards with a variety of texts, containing nothing but the most comfortable promises: and thus his disciples drew with courage and comfort, in a lottery where there were various prizes, great and
6 fimall) but no blanks.” I am sorry that there should ever have been the least shadow of ground for the above calumny: but let these gentlemen know, and let all men by these presents know, that the great body of Methodi&ts never used them; that the preachers in general highly disapprove of them; and that what is said about Mr. Wesley’s fskbricating them, &c,y is, to use a Lilliputian expre8sio% the thing that is not, I am glad to find that they are daily dying among the few that did use. them: I hope soon to hear that they are all finally buried; and earnestly pray that they, may never have a RESURRECTION, except to shame and evedasting contempt.
7. Never go in debt for food, clothes, or anything else: it is no sin to die in a ditch through hunger or cold; but it is a crime to go in debt when there is not the fullest prospect of being able to pay. It is the most certain and honourable way, never to sit down to the food, nor put on the clothes, till the bills for both are discharged. By these means you will keep clear of the world, and make the most of the little you have. Every word 6i the old adage is true: Live not on ti-tist, for that is the way to pay dovile.*
8. Never go out in parties of pleasure, however ixmoetnt they may be: what in this case iroiild be considered as no evil in another, might be reputed acximeinyon. Excursions for the benefit of health, and these may often be needed, are not included here.
9. Never choose a circuit for yourseUl If you do, and succeed in getting the object of your choice; make up your mind to bear all the crosses alone,. which you may meet with in it: for how can you look to Ood for strength to support you under trials,, which you may reasonably conclude are of your own procuring? You are God*s Messenger; pray him, therefore, to send you where you may do and get most good. In such a place the crosses you meet with are God’s crosses; and he is bound not. only to support you under them, but to sanctify ihem to the good of your soul.
10. Get a genuine friend whenever ypu can, and prise him much when you have got him. Beware of forming hasty friendships: they are seldom solid. Confide little in the person who suddenly professes uncommon affection for you. He may be sincere ;, but depend upon it he will not be steady. Ee member the proverb, Hot love is soon cM, Those who form hasty friendships are always fickle. This is bad, but it is not the worst in this business; for
these very persons, through the changeableness of their hearts, soon withdrawing their affections from you, will accuse you of ingratitude and unkindness; while the whole is owing to the uncertainty of their own character, and the fickleness of their own hearts. Shun such as you would an enemy: for they are not less injurious. On this subject I will we you two Asiatic proverbs: 1. Never trust to .appearances; behold, the drum, with all its noise, is empty within. 2. If you have a friend who takes offence at trifles, break entirely with him, for he is not to be trusted.