Our inmost souls Thy Spirit knows, And let Him now display Whom Thou hast for Thy glory chose, And purge the rest away. The apostles false far off remove, Thy faithful labourers own, And give us each himself to prove, And know as he is known. Do _I_ presume to preach Thy word By Thee uncalled, unsent? Am _I_ the servant of the Lord, Or Satan’s instrument? I once _unfeignedly believed_ Myself sent forth by Thee; But have I _kept_ the grace received, In simple poverty?” Twelve verses of this searching hymn were sung; its author, the president, prayed; and then stated his views, freely and fully, concerning the qualifications, work, and trials of Methodist preachers. No immediate action was taken, except that poor William Darney, who had just published his “Collection of Hymns, in four parts,” was refused admittance, and was told, that unless he abstained, in future, “from railing, begging, and printing nonsense,” he should be expelled. The conference lasted but a day, and seems to have passed but one resolution. “We agreed,” writes Charles Wesley, “to postpone opinions till the next general conference, and parted friends.”[155] Charles Wesley, however, accomplished the work assigned him by his brother, more by private inquiry than by public conference. Robert Swindells he found inclined to Calvinism, but teachable; David Tratham was a confirmed predestinarian;[156] and John Bennet’s theological principles were doubted. Wesley’s suspicions and anxieties were, at this period, quite equal to his brother’s. He had heard that Charles Skelton, and J. C. (? Joseph Cownley) “frequently and bitterly railed against the Church”; he declared, that “idleness had eaten out the heart of half their preachers, particularly those in Ireland”; and he requested his brother to give them their choice, “Either follow your trade, or resolve, before God, to spend the same hours in reading, etc., which you used to spend in working.” He counselled, that the young preachers should not be checked without strong necessity; and said, that, in the process of sifting, he should prefer grace before gifts. They must deal, not only with disorderly walkers, but with triflers, the effeminate, and busybodies. In a letter to a friend, dated August 21, he wrote: “I see plainly the spirit of Ham, if not of Corah, has fully possessed several of our preachers. So much the more freely and firmly do I acquiesce in the determination of my brother, ‘that it is far better for us to have ten, or six preachers, who are alive to God, sound in the faith, and of one heart with us and with one another, than fifty of whom we have no such assurance.’” Towards the end of the year, Wesley and his brother conferred with their confidential adviser, the Rev. Vincent Perronet, and then drew up and signed the following agreement. “With regard to the preachers, we agree—