A Letter to My Mother, March 18, 1736

SAVANNAH, March 18, 1736.

DEAR MOTHER, -- I doubt not but you are already informed of the many blessings which God gave us in our passage; as my brother Wesley must before now have received a particular account of the circumstances of our voyage, which he would not fail to transmit to you by the first opportunity.

We are likely to stay here some months. The place is pleasant beyond imagination; and, by all I can learn, exceeding healthful -- even in summer, for those who are not intem perate. It has pleased God that I have not had a moment's illness of any kind since I set my foot upon the continent; nor do I know any more than one of my seven hundred parishioners who is sick at this time. Many of them, indeed, are, I believe, very angry already: for a gentleman, no longer ago than last night, made a ball; but public prayers happening to begin about the same time, the church was full, and the ball-room so empty that the entertainment could not go forward.

I should be heartily glad if any poor and religious men or women of Epworth or Wroot would come over to me. And so would Mr. Oglethorpe too: he would give them land enough, and provisions gratis till they could live on the produce of it. I was fully determined to have wrote to my dear Emmy to-day; but time will not permit. O hope ye still in God; for ye shall yet give Him thanks, who is the help of your countenance and your God! Renounce the world; deny yourselves; bear your cross with Christ, and reign with Him!

My brother Harper, [John Wesley married his sister Emilia to Robert Harper, an apothecary of Epworth, shortly before he sailed for Georgia. It was an unfortunate marriage. His business was not a success, and ab sorbed a large part of what his wife made by her boarding- school at Gainsborough. See letter of June 18, 1725.] too, has a constant place in our prayers. May the good God give him the same zeal for holiness which He has given to a young gentleman at Rotterdam, who was with me last night.[ He had a long, close interview with Mr. Appee, a young Dutchman, in the house and in the garden. Appee proved to be unscrupulous and irreligious. See Journal, i. 180-1d; C. Wesley's Journal, i. 36-41.] Pray for us, and especially for, dear mother,

Your dutiful and affectionate Son.

To Mrs. Wesley, In Gainsborough,

Lincolnshire.