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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156 SUSANNA WESLEY.<br />
properties and effects are much the same, has, I<br />
believe, induced some to think that the human soul<br />
has no passion but love ;<br />
and that all those passions or<br />
affections which we distinguish by the names of hope,<br />
fear, joy, &c., are no more than various modes of love.<br />
This notion carries some show of reason, though 1<br />
cannot acquiesce in it. I must confess I never yet<br />
met with such an accurate definition of the passion<br />
of love as fully satisfied me. It is, indeed, commonly<br />
defined as ' a desire of union with a known or apprehended<br />
good.' But this directly makes love and desire<br />
the same thing, which, on a close inspection, I conceive<br />
they are not for this reason desire is strongest and<br />
:<br />
acts most vigorously when the beloved object is distant,<br />
absent, or apprehended unkind or displeased; whereas<br />
when the union is attained and fruition perfect, complacency,<br />
delight, and fill<br />
joy the soul of the lover<br />
while desire lies quiescent, which plainly shows (at<br />
least to me) that desire of union is an effect of love,<br />
and " not love itself.<br />
What then is love ? Or how shall we describe its<br />
strange mysterious essence? It is I do not know<br />
what ! A powerful something<br />
! source of our joy and<br />
grief, felt and experienced by everyone, and yet unknown<br />
to all ! Nor shall we ever comprehend what it<br />
ds till we are united to our First Principle, and there<br />
read its wondrous nature in the clear mirror of uncreated<br />
Love ;<br />
till which time it is best to rest satisfied<br />
with such apprehensions of its essence as we can collect<br />
from our observations of its effects and propensities ;<br />
for other knowledge of it in our present state is too<br />
high and too wonderful for us, neither can we attain<br />
to it.<br />
" Suffer now a word of advice. However curious you
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