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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170 SUSANNA WESLEY.<br />
and that they have put<br />
it in her head to visit us this<br />
summer. I am apt to believe that if they get her once<br />
out of my brother's house they will take care to keep<br />
her thence for ever. It is a pity that honest, generous<br />
girl has not a little of the subtlety of the serpent with<br />
the innocence of the dove. She is no match for those<br />
who malign her; for she scorns to do an unworthy<br />
action, and therefore believes everybody else does so<br />
too. Alas ! it is a great pity that all the human<br />
species are not as good as they ought to be.<br />
" Prithee, what has become of John \Vhitelamb ?<br />
Is he yet alive ? Where is Mr. Morgan<br />
? If with<br />
you, pray give my service to him. I am sorry the<br />
wood-drink did him no service. 1 never knew it fail<br />
before, if drank regularly ; but perhaps he was too<br />
far gone before he used it. I doubt he eats too little<br />
or sleeps cold, which last poisons the blood above<br />
all things. Dear Charles, I send you my love and<br />
blessing. Em, Matty, Kez send their love to you<br />
both.<br />
"SUSANXA WESLEY. "<br />
A letter that has not appeared since the year 1800.<br />
when it was published in the Methodist Pocket Book,<br />
shows how warm an interest Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong> took in<br />
John's pupils, and how they exchanged opinions on<br />
books as well as doctrines :<br />
"DEAR SON,<br />
" Epworth, Jan. 1st, 1733.<br />
"Pray give my service to Mr. Robinson, your<br />
pupil, and tell him I am as good as my word ;<br />
I daily<br />
pray for him, and beg him, if he has the least<br />
regard for his soul, or any remaining<br />
sense of religion,<br />
to shake off all acquaintance with the prophane.<br />
It is the free-thinker and the sensualist, not the
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