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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82 SUSANNA WESLEY.<br />
not been preserved. She wrote to him again in the<br />
autumn of the same year, as follows :<br />
" Epworth, October 1709.<br />
"<br />
MY DEAR SAMMY,<br />
" I hope that you retain the impressions of<br />
your education, nor have forgot that the vows of God<br />
are upon you. You know that the first-fruits are<br />
Heaven's by an unalienable right, and that, as your<br />
parents devoted you to the service of the altar, so you<br />
yourself made it<br />
your choice when your father was<br />
offered another way of life for you. But have you<br />
duly considered what such a choice and such a dedication<br />
imports? Consider well what separation from<br />
the world, what purity, what devotion, what exemplary<br />
virtue, are required in those who are to guide others<br />
to glory<br />
! I say exemplary ;<br />
for low, common degrees<br />
of piety are not sufficient for those of the sacred function.<br />
You must not think to live like the rest of the<br />
world ; your light must so shine before men that they<br />
may see your good works, and thereby be led to<br />
Father which is in heaven. For<br />
glorify your my part,<br />
I cannot see with what face clergymen can reprove<br />
sinners, or exhort men to lead a good life, when they<br />
themselves indulge their own corrupt inclinations, and<br />
by their practice contradict their doctrine. If the<br />
Holy Jesus be indeed their Master, and they are<br />
really His ambassadors, surely it becomes them to<br />
live like His disciples ; and, if they do not, what a sad<br />
account must they give of their stewardship<br />
!<br />
I would advise you, as much as possible in your<br />
present circumstances, to throw your business into<br />
a certain method, by which means you will learn to<br />
improve every precious moment, and find an unspeak-
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