I have read William Law most of the day. It is interesting to read such literature as a historian of ideas. On one side I have to create a "self" that objectivizes the text with a particular question in mind concerning a historical figure. On the other side the subject of Christian devotion of which Law speaks breaks that artificial "self" and reminds me to work for the good of what I am doing. I see the influence on my life in the truth if what he writes through Wesley. For instance, Law speaks of education, not in terms of acquiring status and honor through the generation of knowledge, but in terms of initiating the student a good life:

Now as the instruction of every art of science is founded upon the discoveries, the wisdom, experience, and maxims, of the several great men that have labored in it; so human wisdom, or right use of our reason, which young people should be called to by their education, is nothing else but the best experience, and finest reasonings, of men that have devoted themselves to the study of wisdom, and the improvement of human nature.

All, therefore, that great saints, and dying men, when the fullest of light and conviction, and after the highest improvement of their reason, all that they have said of the necessity of piety, of the excellency of virtue, of their duty to God, of the emptiness of riches, of the vanity of the world; all the sentences, judgments, reasonings, and maxims, of the wisest of philosophers, when in their highest state of wisdom, should constitute the common lessons of instruction for youthful minds.

This is the only way to make the young and ignorant part of the world the better for the wisdom and knowledge of the wise and ancient. An education which is not wholly intent upon this, is as much beside the point, as an art of physic that had little or no regard to the restoration of health. (p. 232)

But the quotes that I want to leave you with after last night is the following:

"Our power of doing external acts of love and goodness is often very narrow and restrained. There are, it may be, but few people to whom we can contribute any worldly relief. But though our outward means of doing good are often thus limited, yet, if our hearts are but full of love and goodness, we get, as it were, an infinite power; because God will attribute to us those good works, those acts of love, and tender charities, which we sincerely desired, and would gladly have performed, had it been in our power.

You cannot heal all the sick, relieve all the poor; you cannot comfort all in distress, nor be a father to all the father less; you cannot, it may be, deliver many from their misfortunes, or teach them to find comfort in God. But if there is a love and tenderness in your heart, that delights in these good works, and excites you to do all that you can; if your love has no bounds, but continually wishes andprays for the relief and happiness of all that are in distress; you will be received by God as a benefactor to those, who have had nothing from you but your good will, and tender affections.

You cannot build hospitals for the incurable; you cannot erect mansteries for the education of persons in holy solitude, continual prayer, and mortification; but if you join in your heart with those that do, and thank God for their pious designs; if you are a friend to these great friends to mankind, and rejoice in their eminent virtues; you will be received by God as a sharer of such good work as, though they had none of your hands, yet had all your heart. (p. 282-3)