John Wesley tried in his brief tract on the _Calvinistic Controversy_[134] (1743) to make peace with Whitefield, and some of his concessions are surprising—indeed, he afterwards retracted them. But Charles, who at this time was in the full glow of his early evangelistic triumphs, and who was much less of a theologian than his brother, felt that he was engaged in a holy crusade. He tried to write calmly, he prayed for grace to speak tenderly of those who were erring from the truth he held so dear, but—well, he could not keep silence. In one of these hymns—a portion of which remains in the _Methodist Hymn-book_—he prays— O arm me with the mind, Meek Lamb! that was in Thee, And let my knowing zeal be joined To fervent charity. With calm and tempered zeal Let me enforce Thy call, And vindicate Thy gracious will, Which offers life to all. Thou dost not stand in need Of me to prop Thy cause, To assert Thy general grace, or spread The victory of Thy cross. O may I love like Thee! And in Thy footsteps tread! Thou hatest all iniquity, But nothing Thou hast made. O may I learn Thy art, With meekness to reprove; To hate the sin with all my heart, But still the sinner love.[135] These verses might be headed ‘A Prayer before Controversy,’ but it is a shock to the reader on turning the page to find that the next verse shows how soon he descended from this high level. The controversy was renewed thirty years later with vastly greater bitterness, and with much more personal feeling. John Fletcher parted in 1771 from his Trevecca students like the saint he was, for he could no longer hold his place when other Arminians were discharged. ‘I cannot give up the possibility of the salvation of all any more than I can give up the truth and love of God.... I left them all in peace, the servant, but no more the president of the college.’[136] The love of Whitefield and the Wesleys was of the kind which many waters cannot quench; but when Madan, Romaine, Hervey, and Rowland Hill heaped upon John Wesley’s venerable head torrents of vulgar abuse—abuse absolutely impossible, inconceivable in our milder mannered age[137]—Charles felt that there was a point beyond which even Christian charity could not decently go. His refusal to write Hervey’s epitaph is worthy of a Christian gentleman: Let Madan or Romaine record his praise, Enough that Wesley’s brother can forgive.