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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146 xrSANNA WESLEY.<br />
be able<br />
temptation make a way to escape that we may<br />
to bear it. In a word, we may and ought to rejoice<br />
that God has assured us He will never leave nor forsake<br />
us ; but, if we continue to be faithful to Him, He will<br />
take care to conduct us safely through<br />
all the changes<br />
and chances of this mortal life to those blessed regions<br />
of joy and immortality where sin and sorrow can never<br />
enter.<br />
" Your brother has brought us a heavy reckoning for<br />
you and Charles. God be merciful to us all ! Dear<br />
Jack, I earnestly beseech Almighty God to bless you !<br />
Adieu !<br />
" SUSANNA WESLEY."<br />
The brother here alluded to was Samuel, who, much<br />
to his mother's pleasure, came down to Wroote in the<br />
summer of 1725 with his wife and son. In taking<br />
Charles to live with him, he had stipulated that his<br />
father should provide the boy with clothes ;<br />
also advanced some ready money to John,<br />
and he had<br />
so that<br />
This visit<br />
altogether the Rector owed him ten pounds.<br />
was a great pleasure to Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong>, but it appears to<br />
have been the cause of postponing John's ordination<br />
till<br />
September, probably on account of the necessary<br />
expenses. He was ultimately ordained in that month<br />
by Bishop Potter, and preached his first sermon at<br />
South Leigh, near Oxford. He then went down into<br />
Lincolnshire and assisted his father, and in the following<br />
March, mainly through the influence of Dr.<br />
Morley, Rector of Lincoln College, and of S cotton,<br />
near Gainsborough, was elected to a fellowship. This<br />
was a subject of great thankfulness and pride to Mr.<br />
and Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong> ;<br />
the former wrote a jubilant letter<br />
to his "Dear Mr. Fellow Elect of Lincoln"; and,
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