“MY DEAR NAT,――Your letters have all been brought safe to hand, and have given me satisfaction. I know not of a more profitable situation that you could be in, than that you occupy at present. Next year, God willing, you will have a fellow-student. I have agreed with him, as I wrote you from Edinburgh, for three years at least. I am of your mind in respect to boarders. As affairs stand, I think that, at present, the less the family is, the better. Nothing seems to be wanted but a good overseer, to instruct the negroes in sowing and planting. Let me know whether the lumber trade is begun. Pray make George and the children to write often. He should not have written to me, _Honoured Master_, but _Sir_. I am glad to hear that some of the children promise well. Surely some good will, in the end, come out of that institution. I am only afraid of its growing too great in a worldly way. O that I may be directed to such managers as will act with a single eye to God’s glory and His people’s good! I have great confidence in you. I shall be glad to live to see you a preacher. It is a delightful employment, when done out of love to Jesus: that sweetens all. O that Georgia’s wilderness may blossom like a rose! It will, when God’s set time is come. Never mind a few evil reports. No one need be ashamed of Bethesda children.” Whitefield, in his “winter quarters,” was as jubilant as ever. In a letter, dated December 9, he writes: “The shout of a king is amongst us. Every day, we hear of persons brought under fresh awakenings, and of God’s people being comforted. We have had two most awful sacramental occasions.” To Wesley, the year 1752 was one of trial. Several of his itinerants began to give him trouble. At the beginning of the year, he, his brother, and eleven of their principal assistants, signed a document, which shewed that suspicion had taken the place of confidence.[311] During the year, some of the preachers informed Wesley, that his brother Charles did not enforce discipline so strictly as himself, and that Charles agreed with Whitefield, “touching perseverance, at least, if not predestination too.” The latter accusation was utterly untrue; but, as Charles, at this period, was living on terms of the most intimate friendship with the Countess of Huntingdon, and was frequently preaching and administering the sacrament in her house, it is not surprising that his brother deemed it his duty to write to him concerning it. The result was the creation of a temporary distrust and shyness between the two loving brothers. Charles took counsel with Whitefield; and Whitefield’s answer must be given. “LONDON, _December 22, 1752_.