Read the previous entry here.
July 26. I set out for Charleston
Of this, when I came to Frederica, August
13, Mr. Oglethorpe gave me a large account. At the same time, he said he wished
I would spend as much time with her as I could. For this he gave two reasons:
her deep distress, wherein none but me, under God, could comfort her, and her
earnest desire to be fully instructed in the duties of a Christian life.
From him I went to her, at Mr. Hird’s, and
talked with her near an hour. I told her I would now lay aside the reserve I
had used with her at Savannah, being convinced that God had in a peculiar
manner committed her to my charge; that therefore in all my intercourse with
her I should look upon her as one of my sisters, and omit nothing in my power
which might be conducive to her giving herself up to God. I was both pleased
and surprised with the good sense, piety, and gratitude of her reply.
Monday, August 16. I was seized with a
fever. At hearing of this, she expressed much concern, saying, ‘If Mr. Wesley
dies, I shall lose the only friend I ever had in the world.’ She desired me the
next day, if it returned, to send for her immediately. I did so, and she
instantly came, sat by my bed, read several prayers, and prepared whatever I
wanted with a diligence, care, and tenderness not to be expressed. Thursday,
[August] 19. Being a little recovered, I resumed the Collection of Prayers for
Every Day in the Week. I had begun to read and explain them to her the day
after I came to Frederica. And one of these we read every morning after
breakfast till Wednesday, [August] 25. On which, having ended them, I began
((Dr. Heylyn’s)) the Devotional Tracts on the Presence of God. I was quite
surprised to find in one of so little experience a taste for the noblest
passages in them. Those thoughts, she often said, gave her comfort and ease in
the bitterest of afflictions. Twice or thrice after our reading I kissed her;
but I ((soon)) immediately condemned myself as having done foolishly, being
convinced (and the more so because she seemed not displeased) that it was not
expedient either for her or me.
In private she commonly employed herself in
Mr. Law’s Serious Call and Christian Perfection. She made no objection to the
strictness of either, being fully convinced, as she frequently said, that ‘as
there is no happiness but in holiness, so the more holiness the more
happiness.’
Friday, August 20. Mr. Oglethorpe returned.
Between five and six in the evening I called at Mr. Hawkins’s for my decoction
of the bark. He was not at home. She desired me to sit down, and sat down by
me. I told her ‘the being ill-treated by those from whom I expected it had
given me little concern. But it had grieved me to find Mr. Hawkins joining with
them, whom I used to look upon as my friend.’ She asked how he had treated me
ill. I answered, ‘By exposing my brother’s paper, which as a friend he should
have shown to me only.’ She said, ‘All the women in the town are uneasy and
affronted at the two Greek words there. They think them a general reflection on
them all. Pray tell me, who do they mean?’ The substance of my answer was: (1)
What my brother says is not said by me; neither am I accountable for it; (2)
This was writ before we had explained, when all things were dark; he is now of
a quite different opinion; (3) I take him to mean by those words only two
persons, you and Mrs. Welch.
She started up, said I was a villain, a
scoundrel, a pitiful rascal, with several titles of the same kind. In the midst
of her speaking, Mr. Hawkins came in. She told him I said that dog my brother
meant her by those damned words. Upon which he immediately joined her, bestowed
much of the same sort of eloquence both upon him and me, only intermixed with
more oaths and imprecations. I was much grieved, and indeed could not refrain from
tears. I know not whether they interpreted this as fear, but they rose in their
language, and told me they would unfrock us both: him for adultery (the terms
they used were coarser), the consciousness of which, they said, forced him to
run away to England; and me for what was as bad, or worse. I replied, the
sooner the better, and that I would go to Mr. Oglethorpe just now. I did so,
and gave him a plain relation of what had occurred. After prayers, they came
too; but were so warm and used such language in the very relating their case,
that Mr. Oglethorpe was obliged to check them more than once. After a long
hearing, Mr. Oglethorpe said (1) That my brother had been guilty of an
indiscretion in writing that paper; (2) That this was not imputable to me, who
was no way accountable for what he said; and that therefore, (3) They had done
very ill in abusing me in a manner no way justifiable or excusable. With this
reprimand he dismissed them.
