Widowhood

THERE was nothing to detain Mrs. Wesley at Epworth after her few affairs were settled and her sons had returned to Tiverton and Oxford. Samuel took Kezia home with him, and the mother took up her abode for a season with her eldest daughter at Gainsborough. It was no doubt a comfort to her to be with Emilia as the attachment between them had always been very strong, and Martha, the other daughter, who was particularly devoted to her mother, was in London, and preparing to be married. The man to whom she was engaged was Mr. "Wesley, or Westley Hall, the friend and disciple of her brothers at Oxford, who was mentioned in some of Mrs. Wesley's letters to her sons. Martha first met him while keeping her uncle Matthew's house in London, where he proposed to her and was accepted, and he afterwards accompanied John and Charles to Epworth, where, curiously enough, no one seems to have known anything about his engagement, and he made diligent love to Kezia. After winning her affections, he pretended to have a vision from heaven forbidding the match, and, probably being quite aware of Mr. Matthew Wesley's kind intentions towards his favourite niece, returned to his allegiance to Martha. When the brothers heard that she was about to marry Mr. Hall, they accused her of having robbed Kezia of her lover, and then she wrote a full account of the whole affair to her mother, who considered her quite justified in accepting Mr. Hall, and formally gave her consent to the match, adding that if the uncle also gave his, there could be no obstacle.

The pair were united in the summer of 1735, and went to reside at Wootton in Gloucestershire, where the bridegroom had a curacy. The wedding was celebrated by quite a long poem, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for September of that year.

The attention of John and Charles Wesley was just then much engrossed by their approaching departure to Georgia. General James Oglethorpe had some years previously founded the State of Georgia ; he was, as we have seen, in correspondence with the Rector of Epworth, and personally acquainted with Samuel Wesley of Westminster, and in this manner came to know his energetic and zealous young brother. In 1732, he returned to England to beat up recruits for the better population of his colony and mission work among the natives. Through the assistance of the Government, he got together 130 Highlanders and 170 Germans to go back with him, and engaged John Wesley as chaplain and missionary, and Charles as his private secretary. When this expedition was first proposed to them it was personally distasteful, and John decidedly refused it. The general and the trustees urged him to reconsider his determination, and he no doubt remembered his father's warm interest in the colony. He was somewhat shaken in his resolution, but still said he could not leave England while his aged and infirm mother lived. Then he was asked whether her consent to his going would alter the case, so he went down to Gainsborough and spent three days with Mrs. Wesley and Emilia, resolving in his own mind to accept his mother's decision as the voice of Providence. Her reply to what he had to say to her was, " Had I twenty sons, I should rejoice that they were all so employed, though I should never see them more/' This, of course, was conclusive ; Charles was at once ordained, taking deacon's and priest's orders within a few days on account of the exigence of the circumstances, and with two Oxford friends, Mr. Ingham and Mr. Delamotte, they started in faith and not without a spice of the love of adventure and change of scene natural to men of their age. They all sailed from Gravesend, in the good ship Symmonds, on the 14th of October 1735, about six months after the break-up of the home at Epworth.

It is not to be supposed that Mrs. Wesley did not exchange many letters with her sons on the subject, but only one has been preserved. The following short epistle was probably her first after they sailed : — " Gainsborough, " DEAR SON, November 27th, 1735.

God is Being itself, the 1 AM, and therefore must necessarily be the Supreme Good ! He is so infinitely blessed, that every perception of His blissful presence imparts a glad vitality to the heart. Every degree of approach towards Him is, in the same proportion, a degree of happiness ; and I often think that were He always present to our mind, as we are present to Him, there would be no pain nor sense of misery. I have long since chose him for my only Good, my All, my pleasure, my happiness, in this world as well as in the world to come. And although I have not been so faithful to His grace as I ought to have been, yet I feel my spirit adheres to its choice, and aims daily at cleaving steadfastly unto God. Yet one thing often troubles me : that notwithstanding I know that while we are present with the body we are absent from the Lord, notwithstanding I have no taste, no relish left for anything the world calls pleasure, yet I do not long to go home, as in reason I ought to do. This often shocks me ; and as I constantly pray (almost without ceasing) for thee, my son, so I beg you likewise to pray for me, that God would make me better, and take me at the best.

" Your loving mother, " SUSANNA WESLEY."

'In September 1736, Mrs. Wesley, who moved about more in her widowhood than she had done during all her previous life, went to reside with her eldest son at Tiverton, most likely taking the place of Kezia, who was invited by the Halls to go and live with them. She was heartily welcomed by Samuel and his wife, and Mrs. Berry the mother of the latter. Samuel declared himself to be socially in a desert, " having no conversable person except my wife, until my mother came last week.'7 It is almost certain that, while at Tiverton, Mrs. Wesley must have told her son as many particulars as she could remember about her father's family. It will be remembered that he was first cousin to the Earl of Anglesey, that he had only two sons (both of whom were dead, leaving no children), and that he left all papers in the hands of his youngest daughter, and, unhappily, they were destroyed in the fire that consumed Ep worth Parsonage. The Earldom of Anglesey had become extinct for want of heirs male. If the Annesley papers had been in existence, it was supposed that there might have been some possibility of Samuel Wesley claiming it through his mother. His only son, however, was dead, and the one daughter^ who grew up to womanhood, married an ambitious man, a Mr. Earle, who might have pushed his researches vigorously with such a prize in view, had not Charles Wesley married late in life and become the father of sons. If there had been any prospect of success, it would have been that of Charles junior, but his father, who at twenty years of age had refused to be recognised as the heir of Garret Wesley of Dangan,. was the last man to prosecute any inquiries into the inheritance of English estates and a title. The Earles after a time went to France and settled there ; one of the daughters, it is said, married the celebrated Marshal Ney.

Disquieting intelligence speedily came from Georgia. John and Charles were terribly disappointed, especially the latter. He also became possessed of the idea that he was unregenerate. Samuel wrote urging his return, and sent word to John that he was uneasy about Kezia's residence with the Halls, both because he distrusted his sister's husband and on account of the affection the girl had previously had for him. He could not afford, he said, to keep her unless John could pay for her board. Charles did return, reaching England on the 3rd of December 1736, bringing dispatches from the colonists. He was heartily welcomed by his uncle Matthew, and at his house received a warm-hearted letter from Samuel, with all news, and an invitation to Tiverton, which he speedily accepted, to the great joy of his mother, who was, however, at the moment confined to her room by illness.

In July 1737, Mrs. Wesley took up her abode with the Halls, where she seems to have been very comfortable. About her residence with them at Wootton, little is known. A letter from her to Mrs. Berry at Tiverton is in existence, but it is almost exclusively theological. In the concluding paragraph she says : " I thank God, I am somewhat better in health than when I wrote last, and I tell you, because I know you will be pleased with it, that Mr. Hall and his wife are very good to me. He behaves like a gentleman and a Christian, and my daughter with as much duty and tenderness as can be expressed, so that on this account I am very easy." When the Halls moved to Fisherton near Salisbury, she accompanied them, and it was while living there that she had the joy of seeing John return from Georgia, and, from what she heard from him and Charles, came to the conclusion that neither of them ought to go back there. She was very much astonished when her sons made the discovery (so called) that their religious creed and teaching had up to that time been erroneous, and declared that only by faith in the Atonement of Christ could men believe in the salvation of their souls. From that time forth they preached the doctrines known to theologians as justification by faith and the witness of the Spirit. She, perhaps, recognised that " God fulfils Himself in many ways," and was, moreover, approaching the border-land where souls see through the mist of prejudices to the eternal verities ; for in reply to an excited letter from her eldest son, who cautioned everyone he knew to beware of this novel method of preaching the Gospel, she penned an epistle Tvhich, having been much discussed, has become almost historical. She is supposed to have been on a visit to Epworth at the time : — " DEAR SON, " Thursday, March 8th, 1738-9.

Your two double letters came to me safe last Friday. I thank you for them, and have received much satisfaction in reading them. They are written with good spirit and judgment, sufficient, I should think, to satisfy any unprejudiced mind that the reviving these pretensions to dreams, visions, &c., is not only vain and frivolous as to the matter of them, but also of dangerous consequence to the weaker sort of Christians. You have well observed ' that it is not the method of Providence to use extraordinary means to bring about that for which ordinary ones are sufficient.' Therefore the very end for which they pretend that these new revelations are sent seems to me one of the best arguments against the truth of them. As far as I can see, they plead that these visions, &c., are given to assure some particular per-sons of their adoption and salvation. But this end is abundantly provided for in the Holy Scriptures, wherein all may find the rules by which we must live here and be judged hereafter, so plainly laid down, ' that he who runs may read ' ; and it is by these laws we should examine ourselves, which is a way of God's appointment, and therefore we may hope for His direction and assistance in such examination. And if, upon a serious review of our state, we find that in the tenour of our lives we have or do now sincerely desire and endeavour to perform the conditions of the gospel covenant required on our parts, then we may discern that the Holy Spirit hath laid in our own minds a good foundation of a strong, reasonable, and lively hope of God's mercy through Christ.

" This is the assurance we ought to aim at, which the apostle calls ' the full assurance of hope,' which he admonishes us to ' hold fast to the end.' And the consequence of encouraging fanciful people in this new way of seeking assurance (as all do that hear them tell their silly stories without rebuke), I think, must be turning them out of God's way into one of their own devising. You have plainly proved that the Scripture examples and that text, in fact, which they urge in their defence will not answer their purpose, so that they are unsupported by any authority human or Divine (which you have well observed) ; and the credit of their relations must, therefore, depend on their own single affirmation, which surely will not weigh much with the sober, judicious part of mankind.

" I began to write to Charles before I last wrote to you, but could not proceed, for my chimney smoked so exceedingly that I almost lost my sight, and remained well nigh blind a considerable time. God's blessing on eye-water I make, cured me of the soreness, but the weakness long remained. Since, I have been informed that Mr. Hall intends to remove his family to London, hath taken a house, and I must (if it please God I live) go with them, where I hope to see Charles ; and then I can fully speak my sentiments of their new notions more than I can do by writing ; therefore I shall not finish my letter to him.

" You have heard, I suppose, that Mr. Whitfield is taking a progress through these parts to make a collection for a house in Georgia for orphans and such of the natives' children as they will part with, to learn our language and religion. He came hither to see me, and we talked about your brothers. I told him I did not like their way of living, wished them in some place of their own, wherein they might regularly preach, &c. He replied, ' I could not conceive the good they did in London ; that the greatest part of our clergy were asleep, and that there never was a greater need of itinerant preachers than now ' ; upon which a gentleman that came with him said that my son Charles had converted him, and that my sons spent all their time in doing good. I then asked Mr. Whitfield if my sons were not for making some innovations in the Church, which I much feared. He assured me they were so far from it that they endeavoured all they could to reconcile Dissenters to our communion ; that my son John had baptised five adult Presbyterians in our own way on St. Paul's Day, and, he believed, would bring over many to our communion. His stay was short, so I could not talk with him so much as I desired. He seems to be a very good man, and one who truly desires the salvation of mankind. God grant that the wisdom of the serpent may be joined to the innocence of the dove !

" My paper and sight are almost at an end, therefore I shall only add that I send you and yours my hearty love and blessing. Service to Mrs. Berry. I had not an opportunity to send this till Saturday the 13th ult. Love and blessing to Jacky Ellison. Pray let me hear from you soon. We go in April."

Whether the Halls went to London at that time for more than a brief visit is not known, nor has any intimation been found of Mrs. Wesley's knowledge of the trials her daughter had to go through, or the angelic manner in which she bore them. In the autumn of the same year Mrs. Wesley was again at Tiverton with her eldest son. Charles, who was very open-hearted, wrote to her fully and freely about the new lights that had dawned upon him and John, and she replied, not wishing to discourage him, but with much wonder as to what the novel ideas might be, and whither they were tending : — CHARLES, " October 19th, 1738.

"It is with much pleasure I find your mind is somewhat easier than formerly, and I heartily thank God for it. The spirit of man may sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear ? If this has been your case, it has been sad indeed. But blessed be God, who gave you convictions of the evil of sin, as contrary to the purity of the Divine nature and the perfect goodness of His law. Blessed be God, who showed you the necessity you were in of a Saviour to deliver you from the power of sin and Satan (for CKrist will be no Saviour to such as see not their need of one) , and directed you by faith to lay hold of that stupendous mercy offered us by redeeming love. Jesus is the only Physician of souls ; His blood the only salve that can heal a wounded conscience.

" It is not in wealth, or honour, or sensual pleasure, to relieve a spirit heavily laden and weary of the burden of sin. These things have power to increase our guilt by alienating our hearts from God ; but none to make our peace with Him, to reconcile God to man, and man to God, and to renew the union between the Divine -and human nature.

"No, there is none but Christ, none but Christ, who is sufficient for these things. But blessed be God, He is an all-sufficient Saviour; and blessed be Hi& holy name, that thou hast found Him a Saviour to thee, my son ! Oh, let us love Him much, for we have much forgiven !

"I would gladly know what your notion is of justifying faith, because you speak of it as a thing you have but lately received.

" SUSANNA WESLEY."

A second letter, which shows that Mrs. Wesley did not quite comprehend the change of views experienced by her sons, and inculcated by them on their followers, was probably also written from Tiverton : — '• DEAR CHARLES, " December 6th, 1738.

" I think you are fallen into an odd way of thinking. You say that till within a few months you had no spiritual life nor any justifying faith.

" Now, this is as if a man should affirm he was not alive in his infancy, because when an infant he did not know he was alive. All, then, that I can gather from your letter is that till a little while ago you were not so well satisfied of your being a Christian as you are now. I heartily rejoice that you have now attained to a strong and lively hope in God's mercy through Christ. Not that I can think you were totally without saving faith before ; but it is one thing to have faith, and another thing to be sensible we have it. Faith is the fruit of the Spirit and the gift of God ; but to feel or be inwardly sensible that we have true faith, requires a further operation of God's Holy Spirit. You say you have peace, but not joy in believing. Blessed be God for peace ! May this peace rest with you. Joy will follow, perhaps not very closely, but it will follow faith and love. God's promises are sealed to us but not dated, therefore patiently attend His pleasure. He will give you joy in believing. Amen.

"Sus. WESLEY."

Mrs. Wesley was calmer than her son Samuel, but he was terribly alarmed by the reports of the strange wave of excitement that broke over men's souls and bodies at the preaching of his brothers and Mr. Whitfield; at the refusal of the clergy to allow them to speak from their pulpits, and of the bishops to permit them to preach in their dioceses. He recognised the voice of the priest announcing the forgiveness of sins from the place sanctioned by the authority of the Church, but he was afraid of the same doctrine when promulgated out of doors under the canopy of heaven. It seemed to him as if the bulwarks of the body ecclesiastic were being beaten down and the flood-gates of schism opened. Perhaps that, too, was the view of the Hebrew Rabbis eighteen hundred years ago, when the young and unknown Teacher spoke words that thrilled the hearts of the multitudes that clustered round him on the lake-shore or mountain-side. No such movement had ever roused England before; it was the response of soul to soul, the awakening of humanity from a long sleep, the magnetic touch of spiritual genius that kindled dry bones into vivid life. Samuel Wesley, with all his goodness, lacked the magic of the divine afflatus ; but his mother, with her finer feminine instinct, began to feel and comprehend its inspiration. Perhaps the strife of tongues would have waxed hot in the family, had not the Master he served faithfully according to his lights called Samuel up to the realms of peace and clear vision. Mrs. Wesley left him in his usual health at Tivertou and went to London early in 1739, perhaps resting at Salisbury on her way. John contemplated making a home and centre for his work in the metropolis, and wished her to live there. The Halls were near, Hetty in Soho, Anne at Hatfield, and Kezzy, her youngest born, at Bexley, where her brother John had placed her in the family of the Vicar, Mr. Piers, his friend and follower. Charles had recently been ill, and Kezzy, though delicate herself, had nursed him tenderly. The mother probably hailed the opportunity of being within easy reach of them all, and regarded the Foundry as a haven of rest for her old age. It certainly promised well, and bade fair to be a pleasant, healthy, airy residence.

Moorfields was the people's park of the period, with fine old elm trees, wide stretches of green grass and broad gravel walks, where the city fathers enjoyed rest and recreation with their families after business hours. Close to this open space was Windmill Hill, on the east side of which stood a ruinous tiled building, where successive Governments had cast the first great guns used by our armies. But in 1716, while the French cannon taken in Marlborough's successful campaigns were being re-cast, a terrible explosion took place, blowing off the roof, shattering the walls, and killing and maiming many of the workmen. It was felt that such a source of danger ought not to exist in the very midst of London, and for the future the guns were cast at Woolwich, the old foundry being left in ruins. There were about forty yards of frontage, and the depth of the plot of land on which it stood was thirty-three yards. The site and building were secured for £115, and the edifice, when altered, repaired, and adapted for its new purposes cost about £650 more. John Wesley had no income beyond that brought in by his Oxford fellowship, but friends lent and subscribed money, though the full amount was long in coming. There was a rough chapel with benches, a rude pulpit, hastily made of boards, a house for the accommodation of the lay preachers and one or two servants, a small coachhouse and stable, and, over the band room, apartments for John Wesley, to which he brought home his mother and installed her as mistress.

Here she was able to talk many things over with her son, who tells us that till a short time previously she said " she had scarce heard such a thing mentioned as the having God's spirit bear witness with our spirit : much less did she imagine that this was the common privilege of all true believers. 'Therefore/ said she, ' I never durst ask it for myself. But two or three weeks ago, while my son Hall was pronouncing these words in delivering the cup to me, "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee/v the words struck through my heart, and I knew God for Christ's sake had forgiven me all my sins/ I asked whether her father (Dr. Annesley) had not the same faith ; and whether she had not heard him preach it to others. She answered, he had it himself; and declared a little before his death, that for more than forty years, he had no darkness, no fear, no doubt at all of his being accepted in the Beloved. But that, nevertheless, she did not remember to have heard him preach, no, not once, explicitly upon it; whence she supposed he also looked upon it as the peculiar bless13 * ing of a few ; not as promised to all the people of God."

Thus Mrs. Wesley was won to the views of her son John, much to the distress of Samuel, who wrote about the middle of October 1739 : — <( John and Charles are now become so notorious, the world will be curious to know when and how they were born, what schools bred at, what colleges of in Oxford, and when matriculated, what degrees they took, and where, when, and by whom ordained ; what books they have written or published. I wish they may spare so much time as to vouchsafe a little of their story. For my own part, I had much rather have them picking straws within the walls, than preaching in the area of Moorfields.

" It was with exceeding concern and grief I heard you had countenanced a spreading delusion, so far as to be one of Jack's congregation. Is it not enough that I am bereft of both my brothers, but must my mother follow too ? I earnestly beseech the Almighty to preserve you from joining a schism at the close of your life, as you were unfortunately engaged in one at the beginning of it. It will cost you many a protest, should you retain your integrity, as I hope to God you will. They boast of you already as a disciple. Charles has told Joe Bentham that I do not differ much, if we understand one another. I am afraid I must be forced to advertise, such is their apprehension or their charity. But they design separation. Things will take their natural course, without an especial interposition of Providence. They are already forbid all the pulpits in London, and to preach in that diocese is actual schism. In all likelihood it will come to the same all over England, if the bishops have courage enough. They leave off the liturgy in the fields ; though Mr. Whitfield expresses his value for it, he never once read it to his tatterdemalions on a common. Their societies are sufficient to dissolve all other societies but their own. Will any man of common sense, or spirit, suffer any domestic to be in a bond engaged to relate everything without reserve to five or ten people, what concerns the person's conscience, how much soever it may concern the family ? Ought any married persons to be there, unless husband and wife be there together ? This is literally putting asunder whom God hath joined together. As I told Jack, I am not afraid the Church should excommunicate him, discipline is at too low an ebb, but that he should excommunicate the Church. It is pretty near it; holiness and good works are not so much as conditions of our acceptance with God. Love feasts are introduced, and extemporary prayers and expositions of scripture, which last are enough to bring in all confusion ; nor is it likely they will want any miracles to support them. He only can stop them from being a formed sect, in a very little time, who ruleth the madness of the people.

" Ecclesiastical censures have lost their terrors, thank fanaticism on the one hand, and atheism on the other. To talk of persecution, therefore, from thence, is mere insult. It is — .

' To call the bishop greybeard Gaff, And make his power as mere a scaff, As Dagon when his hands were off.' * * * * " My sister Hall has written to me on the subject, whom I will answer as soon as ever I can. In the meantime I shall be glad to hear from you, and beg your blessing upon us and ours, and your prayers that we may be safely guided through the painful remnant of our lives, and arrive by Christ's mercies to everlasting happiness.

" I am, dear Mother, " Your dutiful and affectionate Son, " SAMUEL WESLEY."

This long letter must have been one of the last Samuel Wesley ever wrote. He had not been very well, but considered himself "on the mending hand." On the 5th of November he went to bed in fairly good health, but was taken ill at three o'clock in the morning, and died after four hours suffering, at the age of forty-nine.

Before taking leave of Samuel Wesley, it is worth while to mention that St. George's Hospital, nearly opposite Apsley House, owes its existence to him. It was originally an infirmary, the first in Westminster, and was founded, in 1719, mainly through his untiring exertions. Hyde Park Corner thus bears witness to the triumphs of two kinsmen, one of whom was an adept in the arts of war, and the other in those of peace.