to no decision; and justice was not likely to be awarded.  Wearied with this litigious prosecution, Wesley applied to his own case the direction given by our Lord to his Apostles, “If they persecute thee in one place, flee unto another;” and, shaking off the dust of his feet as a witness against them, he fled to Charlestown, South Carolina; whence, on Thursday, the 22d of December, 1737, he embarked for England.  After a pleasant passage, he landed at Deal, February, 1738, as he remarks, “on the anniversary festival in Georgia, for Mr. Oglethorpe’s landing there.”  As he entered the channel, on his return, Mr. Whitefield sailed through it, on a mission; not to be his coadjutor, as he expected, but, as it proved, his successor.

II.  The situation of CHARLES WESLEY was annoyed by like discomfitures, and followed by still greater disappointment.  He had received the most flattering accounts of Georgia from the conversation of Oglethorpe, with whom he had been for some time acquainted; and from the little book which this gentleman had published.  Implicitly confiding in the high wrought descriptions which had been given him, and indulging anticipations of a colonization of more than Utopian excellence, he attended his brother to Georgia, and attached himself to Oglethorpe, whose warm professions had won him to his service both as Secretary and Chaplain.

His destination was to the new settlement at Frederica; and there he arrived, with his patron, on the 9th of March, 1736.  The first person who saluted him, as he stept on shore, was Ingham, his intimate, confidential, and highly valued friend; who had preceded him thither.  The meeting was truly pleasant; but what he learned from him of the state of affairs there, and of “the treatment which he had met for vindicating the sanctity of the Lord’s day,” was a saddening indication of the reverse which his cherished anticipations were soon to meet.  He was apprised by it, however, of the necessity of taking measures for procuring a more sober observance of the Sabbath in future.  Accordingly, as he had been announced to the settlers as their religious instructer and guide, he spent the remainder of the week in visits to their families, and in seeking that personal acquaintance with them, without which, he well knew that general instruction would be of little use; but, he observes, “with what trembling should I call this flock mine!” In the evening he read prayers, in the open air; at which Oglethorpe was present.  He observed that the lesson seemed remarkably adapted to his situation, and that he felt the power of it; particularly of the passage, “continue instant in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Colossians, IV. 3]