John and Charles Wesley set sail from England for America in the Simmonds on this date in 1735. Here is an excerpt from John Wesley's diary for that day.



Mr. Benjamin Ingham, of Queen's College, Oxford, Mr. Charles Delamotte, son of a merchant in London, who had offered himself some days before, my brother Charles Wesley, and myself, took boat for Gravesend, in order to embark for Georgia. Our end in leaving our native country was not to avoid want, (God having given us plenty of temporal blessings,) nor to gain the dung or dross of riches or honor; but singly this, -- to save our souls, to live wholly to the glory of God. In the afternoon we found the `Simmonds' off Gravesend, and immediately went on board.



Here is one of the hymns of Charles Wesley from a few years later, on the text of Luke 15:2: This man receiveth sinners.



Sinners, Believe The Gospel Word.



Sinners, believe the Gospel word,

Jesus is come your souls to save

Jesus is come, your common Lord;

Pardon ye all through Him may have,

May now be saved, whoever will;

This Man receiveth sinners still.



See where the lame, the halt, the blind,

The deaf, the dumb, the sick, the poor,

Flock to the Friend of human kind,

And freely all accept their cure;

To whom did He His help deny?

Whom in His days of flesh pass by?



Did not His Word the fiends expel,

The lepers cleanse, and raise the dead?

Did He not all their sickness heal,

And satisfy their every need?

Did He reject His helpless clay,

Or send them sorrowful away?



Nay, but His bowels yearned to see

The people hungry, scattered, faint;

Nay, but He uttered over thee,

Jerusalem, a true complaint;

Jerusalem, who shedd’st His blood,

That, with His tears, for thee hath flowed.