Susanna Wesley
This is the story of Susanna Wesley, 1669-1742 Mother of Charles and John Wesley, who were founders of the Methodist Church. Susanna and her husband, Samuel, had nineteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Her son Charles became a well-known hymn writer and her son John became the found of Methodism. Susanna was brought up in a Puritan home as the youngest of twenty-five children. As a teenager, she became a member of the Church of England. She became the wife of a chronically debt-ridden parish rector in an English village. She said, "I have had a large experience of what the world calls adverse fortune." Nonetheless, Susanna managed to pass down to her children Christian principles that stayed with them.
This is the story of Susanna Wesley, 1669-1742 Mother of Charles and John Wesley, who were founders of the Methodist Church. Susanna and her husband, Samuel, had nineteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Her son Charles became a well-known hymn writer and her son John became the found of Methodism.
Susanna was brought up in a Puritan home as the youngest of twenty-five children. As a teenager, she became a member of the Church of England. She became the wife of a chronically debt-ridden parish rector in an English village. She said, "I have had a large experience of what the world calls adverse fortune." Nonetheless, Susanna managed to pass down to her children Christian principles that stayed with them.
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114 SUSANNA WESLEY.<br />
variably preached on it with great exaltation on All<br />
Saints' Day, and declared that he was sometimes so<br />
vividly aware of the presence of those he loved who<br />
had crossed the dark river before him, that he had<br />
turned round expecting to see them ;<br />
and anyone<br />
acquainted with Charles <strong>Wesley</strong>'s hymns must observe<br />
that they are frequently instinct with the same faith.<br />
Persons who see signs and visions, and hear sounds<br />
inaudible to others, are always highly strung, sensitive,<br />
and emotional. They are almost invariably individuals<br />
who, from choice or necessity, are extremely abstemious<br />
(not to say underfed), and in whom the veil of flesh<br />
is thin, while the mental and spiritual faculties are<br />
abnormally developed. This description applied to all<br />
the <strong>Wesley</strong>s, so that they were exactly the kind of<br />
people to accept and believe in occult influences.<br />
The first impression produced on Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong>'s<br />
mind by the extraordinary noises which were heard at<br />
Epworth Rectory in December 1816, when only herself,<br />
her husband, and her daughters were at home, was<br />
that they betokened that death, or some calamity, had<br />
befallen one or other of the absent boys.<br />
Charles, by<br />
this time, was at Westminster School, though only<br />
eight years old, Samuel having sent for him, considering<br />
that he could best relieve the family burdens<br />
by undertaking the maintenance and education of his<br />
youngest brother. Little Charles was a plucky boy,<br />
and remarkably ready with his fists; and, perhaps,<br />
mother-like, Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong> was always anxious lest<br />
harm should come to him. In after days, and when<br />
assured of the safety of her own children, she connected<br />
the first noises with the death of her brother<br />
in India, who ceased to be heard of about that time.<br />
But as the sounds continued during many years, and
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