[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Whatever John Wesley's eschatology
may have been, his brother Charles at least held hopeful views as to the future, if we may judge by his lines on 1 Sam. xxviii. 19, which I quote below :— "What can these solemn lines portend ?
Some gleam of hope when life shall end !
Thou and thy sons, though slain, shall be To-morrow in repose with me. Not in a state of hellish pain, If Saul with Samuel remain ; Not in a place of damned despair, If loving Jonathan be there."
As to John Wesley himself, is it not probable that, as on other subjects, his ideas as to future punishment may have become modified as his life and experience advanced ? I
cannot prove this, not having his Journal at hand. But I remember how in his old age he partially revoked his severe judgment on hit former self, which he had classified as "dead," and "lost," and " unconverted " before he fell in with the Moravians on his way to America. His last view of his youthful condition, given in a footnote, was : "I think now that I had the faith of a servant, though not of a son."—
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