Susanna Wesley

PARTINGS. 155
allusion made to this circumstance. It is
slightest
difficult to imagine why the heirship should have been
refused. Most parents with so large a family would
have been only too thankful that one of them should
have been raised to a station which his talents and
character in every way fitted him to adorn, and Mr.
Wesley's natural anxiety on behalf of his wife, should
she survive him, would have been allayed had one of
his sons been in good circumstances. John Wesley,
in the fervour of his religious zeal, and appreciating
his brother as a coadjutor, once remarked that this
decision made by Charles was " a fair escape " ;
and
Methodist writers generally have regarded and spoken
of him as a kind of eighteenth- century Moses, " who
esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt." The followers of John
Wesley, however, have not shown themselves averse to
wealth, and many of them have made noble use of it.
While John Wesley was a resident Fellow of Lincoln,
and spending his long vacations at Wroote, he was not
insensible to feminine charms. As is well known, he
succumbed several times to the power of the tender
passion, although, when quite a middle-aged man, he
made a prosaic match that brought him little or nohappiness.
The home circle was aware that in 1727
his fancy was caught by a young lady in Worcestershire,
Betty Kirkham, and it is probable that she was
his first love. He was on unusually affectionate terms
with his mother, and perhaps made her his confidante,
for only something of that nature was likely to have
called forth the following beautiful letter :
"DEAR SON,
" Wroote, May 14th, 1725.
"The difficulty there is in separating the ideas
of things that nearly resemble each other, and whose