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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DISAPPOINTMENTS AND PERPLEXITIES. 129<br />
infirm and weak ; yet, old as I am, since I have taken<br />
my husband ' for better or for worse/ I '11 take my<br />
residence with him, ' where he lives will I live, and<br />
where he dies will I die, and there will I be buried.<br />
God do so to me, and more also, if<br />
aught but death<br />
part him and me.' Confinement is nothing to one<br />
that by sickness is compelled to spend great part of<br />
her time in a chamber ;<br />
and I sometimes think that<br />
if it were not on account of Mr. <strong>Wesley</strong> and the<br />
children, it would be perfectly indifferent to my soul<br />
whether she ascended to the supreme Origin of being<br />
from a jail or a palace, for God is<br />
everywhere :<br />
No walls, nor locks, nor bars, nor deepest shade,<br />
Nor closest solitude excludes His presence ;<br />
And in what place soever He vouchsafes<br />
To manifest His presence, there is heaven.<br />
And that man whose heart is penetrated with<br />
Divine love, and enjoys the manifestations of God's<br />
blissful presence is happy,<br />
let his outward condition<br />
be what it will. He is rich, as having nothing, yet<br />
possessing all things. This world, this present state<br />
of things, is but for a time. What is now future will<br />
'be present, as what is already past once was; and<br />
then, as Mr. Pascal observes, a little earth thrown on<br />
our cold head will for ever determine our hopes and<br />
our condition ;<br />
nor will it signify much who personated<br />
the prince or the beggar, since, with respect to the<br />
exterior, all must stand on the same level after death.<br />
" Upon the best observation I could ever make,<br />
I am induced to believe that it is much easier to be<br />
contented without riches than with them. It is so<br />
natural for a rich person to make his gold his god<br />
(for whatever a person loves most, that thing, be it<br />
what it will, he will certainly make his god) ; it is<br />
9
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