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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MATERNAL SOLICITUDE. 67<br />
on a new life ;<br />
that is to say, he had fresh duties and<br />
a wider sphere. He probably had a good voice, and<br />
some knowledge of music, or he would not have been<br />
chosen for a King's Scholar, as boys occupying that<br />
position are almost always choristers at the Chapel<br />
Royal. This brings them into notice, and they receive<br />
many invitations into musical and aristocratic society.<br />
Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong> was terribly afraid that her son might<br />
become of the world, worldly, and wrote to warn and<br />
exhort him :<br />
"DEAR<br />
" SAMMY, Epworth, August 30th, 1707.<br />
" Prithee how do you do in the midst of so<br />
much company and business, to preserve your mind<br />
in any temper fit for the service of God ? I am sadly<br />
afraid lest you should neglect your duty towards Him.<br />
Take care of the world, lest it unawares steal away<br />
your heart, and so make you prove false to those<br />
vows and obligations which you have laid upon yourself,<br />
in the covenant you personally made with the ever<br />
blessed Trinity, before your reception of the Holy<br />
Communion. Have you ever received the Sacrament<br />
at London ?<br />
If not, consider what has been the cause<br />
of your neglect, and embrace the next opportunity.<br />
" SUSANNA WESLEY/'<br />
In October Mrs. <strong>Wesley</strong>'s motherly sympathies were<br />
called forth by hearing that her boy was laid up with<br />
rheumatism but ; by the end of November he had<br />
recovered, and she wrote him a very long letter,<br />
chiefly theological, but containing some plain words<br />
on the temptations likely to assail a youth on the<br />
threshold of manhood. The opening and closing<br />
paragraphs are alone suited to these pages : 5 *
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