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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TRIALS AND TROUBLES. 47<br />
I shall be able to finish it quickly, and then have you<br />
transcribe all<br />
your letters; for they may be more<br />
useful to you than they are now, because you will be<br />
better able to understand them. I shall be employing<br />
my thoughts on useful subjects for you when I have<br />
time, for I desire nothing in this world so much as to<br />
have my children well instructed in the principles of<br />
religion, that they may walk in the narrow way which<br />
alone leads to happiness. Particularly I am concerned<br />
for you, who were, even before your birth,<br />
dedicated to the service of the sanctuary, that you<br />
may be an ornament of that Church of which you are<br />
a member, and be instrumental (if<br />
God shall spare<br />
souls to Heaven. Take<br />
your life) in bringing many<br />
heed, therefore, in the first place, of your own, lest<br />
you yourself should be a castaway.<br />
" You have had great advantages of education ;<br />
God<br />
has entrusted you with many talents, such as health,<br />
strength, a comfortable subsistence hitherto, a good<br />
understanding, memory, &c. ;<br />
and if<br />
any one be misemployed<br />
or not improved, they will certainly one day<br />
rise up in judgment against you.<br />
" If I thought you would not make good use of<br />
instruction, and be the better for reproof, I would<br />
never write or speak a word to you more while I live,<br />
because I know whatever I could do would but tend<br />
to your greater condemnation. But I earnestly beg<br />
of God to give you His grace, and charge you, as you<br />
will answer for it at the last great day, that you carefully<br />
'work out your own salvation with fear and<br />
trembling,' lest you should " finally miscarry.<br />
You say you do not know how to keep a secret<br />
without sometimes telling a lie. I do not know what<br />
secrets you may have I am sure nobody with you has<br />
:
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