Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A Quaker invites JW to dinner

Wed. 27 Jul 1774. About one, we reached Leek in Staffordshire. I could not imagine who the Quaker should be that had sent me word he expected me to dinner and was agreeably surprised to find that it was my old friend Joshua Strangman, of Mountmellick in Ireland, whom I had not seen for many years. I found he was the same man still, of the same open, friendly, amiable temper. And everything about him was (not costly or fine but) surprisingly neat and elegant. It began to rain soon after we came in, but the rain stayed while I was preaching; and it seemed the whole town, rich and poor, were gathered together and listened while I explained, ‘God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’ I preached at Burslem in the evening, and, on Thursday 28 in the afternoon, came to Shrewsbury.