June 4, 1810 — to Mrs. Mary Warfield

It is not known who Mrs. Mary Warfield was. It seems quite evident that she had been a preacher’s wife. Asbury is giving her advice as to her spiritual life and family responsibilities. There was a Charles Warfield on the Huntingdon Circuit of the

Susquehanna District in the Baltimore Conference in 1807. WORCHESTER, N.H.

June 4, 1810

[TO MRS. MARY WARFIELD]¹

My dear Mary and loving Sister:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you and family and all the sisterhood that labor with those that labor in the word and doctrine. It was impossible for you to count the cost of being a wife and mother and a traveller. Great the care and burden you must and will bear but it will daily increase as your family groweth up and you will become weak. Oh, my sister, be careful of the morning, noon and evening, private moments. Speak to all the sisters, aged and young, rich and poor. Pray with them, preach to them powerfully in companies. Do a good part in these works of God. My time is short. Old Moses has but one war and a few months to be in the wilderness till forty.² This charge is gone in part and will be in hands [defaced]. We are all mortal, let us haste to meet our God, our Christ, our Kingdom, our crown of glory, our rest from suffering and pain. I am making ready, so are you Mary I hope, now in Jesus, farewell and prosper. I am sincerely, your father, brother, servant, friend for Jesus sake.

F. ASBURY

Methodist Historical Society of the Baltimore Conference

(Lovely Lane Museum)