“But I have no books.” I will give each of you, as fast as you will read them, books to the value of five pounds. And I desire the assistants will take care, that all the large societies provide _The Christian Library_, or at least the notes on the new Testament, for the use of the preachers.
2. In the afternoon follow Mr. _Baxter_’s plan: Then you will have no time to spare: none for learning Latin or Greek, or Hebrew: you will have work enough for all your time. Then likewise no preacher will stay with us, who is as salt that has lost its savour. For to such, this employment would be mere drudgery. And in order to it, you will have need of all the knowledge you can procure.
The sum is. Go into _every house_ in course, and teach _every one_ therein. Young and old, if they belong to us, to be Christians inwardly and outward!y.
Make every particular plain to their understanding. Fix it in their memory. Write it on their heart. In order to this, there must be _line upon line, precept upon precept_. I remember to have heard my father asking my mother, “How could you have the patience, to tell that blockhead the same thing, twenty times over?” She answered, “Why, if I had told him but nineteen times, I should have lost all my labour.” What patience indeed, what love, what knowledge is requisite for this?
_Q._ 34. In what method should we instruct them?
_A._ Read, explain, inforce,
1. The rules of the society:
2. Instructions for children:
3. The fourth volume of sermons:
4. _Philip Henry_’s method of family prayer.
Over and above: where there are ten children in a society, spend at least an hour with them twice a week. And do this, not in a dull, dry, formal manner, but in earnest, with your might.
“But I have no gift for this.” Gift or no gift, you are to do it, else you are not called to be a Methodist-preacher. Do it as you can, till you can do it as you would. Pray earnestly for the gift, and use the means for it; particularly studying the childrens tracts.
_Q._ 35. Why are not _we_ more holy? Why do not _we_ live in eternity? Walk with God all the day long? Why are we not all devoted to God? Breathing the whole spirit of _missionaries_?
_A._ Because we are enthusiasts: looking for the end, without using the means.
To touch only upon two or three instances.
Do _you_ rise at four? Or even at five, when you do not preach?
Do you fast once a week? Once a month? Do you know the obligation, or benefit of it?
Do you recommend the five o’clock hour for private-prayer? Do you observe it? Do not you find, that _any time_ is _no time_?
O let us all _stir up the gift of God that is in us_! Let us no more _sleep, as do others_: But whatsoever our _hand findeth to do_, let us _do it with our might_!
_Q._ 36. Who is the _assistant_?
_A._ That preacher in each circuit, who is appointed from time to time to take charge of the societies, and the other preachers therein.
_Q._ 37. How should an assistant be qualified for this charge?
_A._ By walking closely with God, and having his work greatly at heart; by understanding and loving discipline, ours in particular; and by loving the church of _England_, and resolving not to separate from it.
_Q._ 38. What is the business of an assistant?
_A._ 1. To see that the other preachers in his circuit behave well, and want nothing: 2. To visit the classes quarterly in each place, regulate the bands, and deliver new tickets: 3. To keep watch-nights and love-feasts: 4. To take in, or put out of the bands or society: 5. To hold quarterly meetings; and therein diligently to enquire both into the spiritual and temporal state of each society. 6. To take care that every society be duly supplied with books, and that the money for them be constantly returned. 7. To send from every quarterly meeting a circumstantial account to _London_ of every remarkable conversion, and of every one who dies in the triumph of faith. 8. To take exact lists of his societies every _Easter_, and bring them to the next conference. 9. To meet the married men, the married women, the single men, and the single women, in the large societies once a quarter. 10. To see that every society have a private room, and a set of the library or the notes for the helper, and, 11. To travel with me, if required, once a year, through the societies in his circuit.
_Q._ 39. Ought we to insist upon our rule, that no preacher print any thing without your approbation?
_A._ Undoubtedly. And whoever does it for the time to come, cannot take it ill, if he is excluded from our connection. Let every one take this warning, and afterwards blame none but himself.
_Q._ 40. But has the office of an assistant been throughly executed?