Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman (SRSC 12)

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Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman

weighty on my mind, I may express some of the trials which have attended me, under which I have at times rejoiced that I have felt my own self-will subjected. Some years ago I retailed rum, sugar, and molasses, the fruits of the labor of slaves, but had not then much concern* about them save only that the rum might be used in moderation; nor was this concern* so weightily attended to as I now believe it ought to have been. Having of late years been further informed respecting the oppression too generally exercised in these islands, and thinking often on the dangers there are in connections of interest and fellowship with the works of darkness ( Eph 5:11 ), I have felt an increasing concern* to be wholly given up to the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and it has seemed right that my small gain from this branch of trade should be applied in promoting righteousness on the earth. This was the first motion* toward a visit to Barbados. I believed also that part of my outward substance should be applied in paying my passage, if I went, and providing things in a lowly* way for my subsistence; but when the time drew near in which I believed it required of me to be in readiness, a difficulty arose which has been a continual trial for some months past, under which I have, with abasement of mind from day to day, sought the Lord for instruction, having often had a feeling of the condition of one formerly, who bewailed himself because the Lord hid His face from him. During these exercises* my heart has often been contrite, and I have had a tender feeling of the temptations of my fellow creatures, laboring under expensive customs not agreeable to the simplicity “that is in Christ” (2 Cor 11:3, KJV),