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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132 SUSANNA WESLEY.<br />
emerges from the corrupt animality to which she is<br />
united, and, by a flight peculiar to her nature, soars<br />
beyond the bounds of time and place in contemplation<br />
of the Invisible Supreme, whom she perceives<br />
to be her only happiness, her proper centre, in whom<br />
she finds repose inexplicable, such as the world can<br />
neither give nor take away.<br />
" The late Archbishop of York once said to me<br />
(when my master was in Lincoln Castle) among other<br />
'<br />
Tell me/ said '<br />
he, Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong>, whether<br />
things,<br />
you ever really wanted bread ? ' ' My lord/ said I,<br />
' I will freely own to your Grace, that, strictly speaking,<br />
I never did want bread. But then I had so<br />
much care to get it before it was eat, and to pay for<br />
it after, as has often made it very unpleasant to me ;<br />
and, I think, to have bread on such terms is the next<br />
degree of wretchedness to having none at all.' *<br />
You<br />
are certainly in the right/ replied my lord, and<br />
seemed for a while very thoughtful. Next morning<br />
he made me a handsome present, nor did he ever<br />
repent having done so. On the contrary, I have<br />
reason to believe it afforded him comforting reflections<br />
before his exit/'<br />
A passage in which Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong> declares that her<br />
husband had done his disinterested best with regard<br />
to Mr. Annesley's business, even if he had not understood<br />
the wisest way of managing affairs, has here by<br />
common consent been omitted. She proceeds<br />
:<br />
" These things are unkind, very unkind. Add not<br />
misery to affliction if ; you will not reach out a friendly<br />
hand to support, yet, I beseech you, forbear to throw<br />
water on a people already sinking.<br />
" But I shall go on with your<br />
letter to me. You<br />
proceed : '<br />
When I come home ' oh, would to God
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