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. 147<br />
though he had no more than five<br />
pounds wherewith to<br />
keep his family till after harvest, and questioned what<br />
would be his own fate, added " : Wherever I am, my<br />
Jack is Fellow of Lincoln." The mother gave thanks<br />
with a full heart to God for his success, and speedily<br />
had one of her great desires fulfilled in having him<br />
with her during the whole summer, reading prayers<br />
and preaching twice every Sunday either at Epworth or<br />
Wroote. This assistance to his father must have come<br />
in the very nick of time, for in the spring the Rector<br />
had a slight stroke of paralysis which disabled his<br />
right hand. No sooner did John get back to Oxford<br />
in September than he was chosen Greek Lecturer and<br />
Moderator of the Classes ; and, as Charles was then at<br />
Christ Church, was in a position to be of considerable<br />
assistance to him.<br />
The waters were out terribly that summer over<br />
the boggy ground between Epworth and Wroote, and<br />
the<br />
only communication between them was by boat.<br />
Emilia, who had suffered terribly from fever and<br />
malaria, had gone to Lincoln in quest of health and<br />
employment. Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong> suffered very much from<br />
the damp, aggravated by continual anxiety and frequent<br />
privation. Early in July her husband wrote<br />
to John and Charles " : You will find your mother<br />
much altered. I believe what will kill a cat has<br />
almost killed her. I have observed of late little convulsions<br />
in her very frequently, which I don't like."<br />
A day or two later, news was sent to the absent boys<br />
that she was dangerously<br />
ill ;<br />
and John wrote at once<br />
supposing he should never see her more. But the<br />
blow was averted, and the cheery old Rector, who<br />
had been expressing his desire to be able to serve both<br />
his cures, and saying that if not he should die plea-<br />
10 *
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