Not Afraid of a Little Smoke

Tue 26 Jan 1742: I explained at Chelsea the faith which worketh by love. I was very weak when I went into the room. But the more ‘the beasts of the people’ increased in madness and rage, the more was I strengthened, both in body and soul; so that I believe few in the house, which was exceeding full, lost one sentence of what I spoke. Indeed they could not see me nor one another at a few yards’ distance by reason of the exceeding thick smoke, which was occasioned by the wild-fire and things of that kind, continually thrown into the room. But they who could praise God in the midst of the fires were not to be affrighted by a little smoke.