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.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND PERPLEXITIES. 133<br />
that might ever be ' should ! any of your daughters<br />
need me ' as I think they will not<br />
' I shall do as<br />
God enables me ! I must answer this with a sigh<br />
'<br />
from the bottom of my heart. Sir, you know the<br />
proverb, ' While the grass grows, the steed starves/<br />
That passage relating to Ansley I have formerly<br />
replied to ;<br />
therefore I '11<br />
pass it over, together with<br />
some hints I am not willing to understand. You go<br />
on: 'My brother has one invincible obstacle to my<br />
business, his distance from London/ Sir, you may<br />
please to remember I put you in mind of this long<br />
since.<br />
'<br />
Another hindrance : I think he is too zealous<br />
for the party he fancies in the right, and has unluckily<br />
to do with the opposite faction/ Whether those you<br />
employ are factious or not, I '11 not determine, but<br />
very sure I am Mr. <strong>Wesley</strong> is not so ;<br />
he is zealous<br />
in a good cause, as everyone ought to be, but the<br />
farthest from being a party man of any man in the<br />
world/'<br />
Here blazes out for a moment the keen partizanship<br />
of the woman who acknowledged the Divine Right of the<br />
" King over the water" and of no other. The remainder<br />
of the letter shows that she was not one of those who<br />
are blind to the shortcomings of a husband, and also<br />
proves how completely she understood that he had<br />
not found the exact niche in life which his talents and<br />
energies best fitted him to fill.<br />
" '<br />
Another remora is, these matters are out of his<br />
way/ That is a remora indeed, and ought to have<br />
been considered on both sides before he entered on<br />
your business : for I am verily persuaded that that,<br />
and that alone, has been the cause of any mistakes<br />
or inadvertency he has been guilty of, and the true<br />
reason why God has not blessed him with desired
Change language