Last Years

THE news of Samuel Wesley's death was communicated by a friend and neighbour to Charles, who was then at Bristol, and probably also to John at the Foundry. The latter had often been rallied by his relatives on his reticence as to family matters, and it appears that he actually started off to meet Charles and go with him to Tiverton to see their widowed sister-inlaw without communicating the sad news to his mother, who was ill in her own room. Very likely he had not the heart to do so, for all the family knew how dearly she loved her first-born, and what a pattern son he had been to her. Possibly he commissioned one of his sisters to tell her gently. How she bore it she herself told Charles : — " DEAR CHARLES, " November 29th, 1739.

" Upon the first hearing of your brother's death, I did immediately acquiesce in the will of God, without the least reluctance. Only I marvelled that Jacky did not inform me of it before he left, since he knew thereof; but he was unacquainted with the manner of God's dealing with me in extraordinary cases, which, indeed, is no wonder ; for though I have so often experienced His infinite mercy and power in my support, and inward calmness of spirit when the trial would otherwise have been too strong for me, yet His ways of working are to myself incomprehensible and ineffable. Your brother was exceeding dear to me in this life, and perhaps I have erred in loving him too well. I once thought it impossible to bear his loss, but none know what they can bear till they are tried. As your good old grandfather used to say, ' That is an affliction that God makes an affliction.' Surely the manifestation of His presence and favour is more than an adequate support under any suffering whatever. If He withhold His consolations, and hide His face from us, the least suffering is intolerable. But, blessed and adored be His holy name, it hath not been so with me, though I am infinitely unworthy of the least of all His mercies. I rejoice in having a comfortable hope of my dear son's salvation. He is now at rest, and would not return to earth to gain the world. Why then should I mourn? He hath reached the haven before me, but I shall soon follow him. He must not return to me, but I shall go to him, never to part more.

" I thank you for your care of my temporal affairs. It was natural to think that I should be troubled for my dear son's death on that account, because so considerable a part of my support was cut off. But to say the truth, I have never had one anxious thought of such matters; for it came immediately into my mind that God by my child's loss had called me to a firmer dependance on Himself; that though my son was good, he was not my God; and that now our Heavenly Father seemed to have taken my cause more immediately into His own hand ; and, therefore, even against hope, I believed in hope that I should never suffer more.

" I cannot write much, being but weak. I have not been down-stairs above ten weeks, though better than I was lately. Pray give my kind love and blessing to my daughter and Philly. I pray God to support and provide for her.

" SUSANNA WESLEY."

About a month afterwards she wrote again, probably in reply to a letter from Charles, whose head-quarters were at Bristol : — "Foundry, December 27th, 1739.

And why is it so ? Because I want faith. God is an omnipresent unchangeable God, in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning; the fault is in myself, and I attribute all mistakes in judgment and all errors in practice to want of faith in the blessed Jesus. Oh, my dear, when I consider the dignity of His person, the perfection of His purity, the greatness of His sufferings, but above all His boundless love, I am astonished and utterly confounded ; I am lost in thought. I fall into nothing before Him ! Oh, how inexcusable is that person who has knowledge of these things, and yet remains poor and low in faith and love. I speak as one guilty in this matter. I have been prevented from finishing my letter. I complained I had none to converse with me on spiritual things, but for these several days I have had the conversation of many good Christians, who have refreshed in some measure my fainting spirits ; and though they hindered my writing, yet it was a pleasing and I hope not an unprofitable interruption they gave me. I hope we shall shortly speak face to face ; and I shall then, if God permit, impart my thoughts more fully. But then, alas ! when you come, your brother leaves me. Yet that is the will of God, in whose blessed service you are engaged, who has hitherto blessed your labours, and preserved your persons. That He may continue so to prosper your work, and protect you both from evil, and give you strength and courage to preach the true gospel in opposition to the united prayers of evil men and evil angels, is the hearty prayer of, dear Charles, " Your loving mother, " SUSANNA WESLEV."

About this time Emilia Wesley, who had been for a few years married to the sometime apothecary of Epworth, the terribly impecunious Mr. Harper, became a widow, and, leaving Gainsborough, came with a true and favourite servant to remain with her mother at the Foundry.

It must also have been at this juncture that Mrs. Wesley gave her testimony, in one instance, at least, in favour of lay preaching. John Wesley's work was that of an evangelist and organizer, whose parish was the world ; he rode from place to place strengthening the churches, and it was necessary that someone should be left in charge at the Foundry. The person selected was Mr. Thomas Maxfield, " a young man of good sense and piety." His duties were to meet the classes and bands, and read and explain the Scriptures. From this to preaching a sermon was only a step, and he soon did it, speaking with much earnestness and eloquence. John Wesley was greatly disturbed when he heard of it and came quickly home. His mother saw that something was wrong, and asked what it was. " Thomas Maxfield has turned preacher, I find," was the curt answer of the man whose natural desire was to be head and chief in whatever he undertook. Mrs. Wesley soon gave him her opinion on the matter : — " John, you know what my sentiments have been. You cannot suspect me of readily favouring anything of this kind. But take care what you do with respect to that young man ; for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him yourself/' The mother's words had weight, and Maxfield preached before his master. "It is the Lord," exclaimed John Wesley, " let Him do what seemeth Him good. What am I that I should withstand God ?"

And thus the ordained priest, who had been a stickler for sacerdotal privileges, the scholar and " Fellow of Lincoln " was led to sanction the lay preaching which was destined to form an important element in the Methodism he founded. It is supposed that Mrs. Wesley took a warm interest in the women who joined the classes at the Foundry and came there for teaching and advice. She would naturally do so when well enough.

It was characteristic of a youthful zealot like Charles Wesley to imagine that his mother's views of the plan of salvation were inadequate and to endeavour to correct them in a long letter. She not only took what he had to say very meekly but laid his words to heart ; and her humble yet dignified reply to him is the last letter she is known to have written : — "DEAR CHARLES, "Foundry, Oct. 2nd, 1740.

" I do heartily join with you in giving God thanks for your recovery. He hath many wise reasons for every event of Providence, far above our apprehension, and I doubt not but His having restored you to some measure of health again will answer many ends which as yet you are ignorant of.

"I thank you for your kind letter; I call it so, because I verily believe it was dictated by a sincere desire of my spiritual and eternal good. There is too much truth in many of your accusations : nor do I intend to say one word in my own defence, but rather choose to refer all things to Him that knoweth all things. This I must tell you : you are somewhat mistaken in my case. Alas ! it is far worse than you apprehend it to be ! I am not one of those who have never been enlightened, or made partaker of the heavenly gift, or of the Holy Ghost, but have many years since been fully awakened, and am deeply sensible of sin, both original and actual. My case is rather like that of the Church of Ephesus ; I have not been faithful to the talents committed to my trust, and have lost my first love. ' Yet, is there any hope in Israel concerning this thing ? ' I do not, and by the grace of God I will not, despair ; for ever since my sad defection, when I was almost without hope, when I had forgotten God, yet I then found He had not forgotten me. Even then He did by His Spirit apply the merits of the great Atonement to my soul, by telling me that Christ died for me. Shall the God of truth, the Almighty Saviour, tell me that I am interested in His blood and righteousness, and shall I not believe Him ? God forbid ! I do, I will believe ; and though I am the greatest of sinners, that does not discourage me ; for all my transgressions are the sins of a finite person, but the merits of our Lord's sufferings and righteousness are infinite ! If I do want anything without which I cannot be saved (of which I am not at present sensible), then I believe I shall not die before that want is supplied. You ask many questions which I care not to answer ; but I refer you to our dear Lord, who will satisfy you in all things necessary for you to know. I cannot conceive why you affirm yourself to be no Christian, which is in effect to tell Christ to His face that you have nothing to thank Him for, since you are not the better for anything He hath yet done or suffered for you. Oh ! what great dishonour, what wondrous ingratitude, is this to the ever-blessed Jesus ? I think myself far from being so good a Christian as you are, or as I ought to be ; but God forbid that I should renounce the little Christianity I have ; nay, let me rather grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. I know not what other opinion people may have of human nature, but, for my part, I think that without the grace of God we are utterly incapable of thinking, speaking, or doing anything good : therefore, if in any part of our life we have been enabled to perform anything good, we should give God the glory. If we have not improved the talents given us, the fault is our own. I find this is a way of talking much used among this people, which has much offended me ; and I have often wished they would talk less of themselves and more of God. I often hear loud complaints of sin, &c., but rarely, very rarely, any word of praise and thanksgiving to our dear Lord, or acknowledgment of His Infinite . . ."

The remaining sentences are lost, and, as they probably bore on the kind of persons who frequented the Foundry and its services, it is a pity.

It was about six months after the date of this letter, early in March 1741, that Kezia Wesley died at Bexley at the age of thirty-two. It is supposed that she never quite recovered the shock of finding that Wesley Hall had played with her youthful affections as a mere pastime while he was pledged to her sister Martha. She was the youngest, born just after her mother had gone through the terrible ordeal of fright and danger at the Epworth fire. She had endured many privations herself in her youth, all of which helped to account for her delicacy ; but hearts do count for something in women's lives, and an unhappy attachment often produces a want of physical rallying power, especially in one who has no very strong ties to life. Charles seems to have been present when his sister died, and to have been satisfied with her mental and spiritual state.

The only specific disease from which Mrs. Wesley suffered was gout, which in her case was hereditary. It certainly had not arisen from high living and luxury in her own person. The powers of life gradually failed, and all the remaining daughters gathered round their mother. She especially asked Anne not to leave her again if she had strength to remain. Charles was obliged to go away, thinking that she might linger till his return ; J ohn was at Bristol, and, hearing that she was failing fast, rode off on Sunday evening, July 18th, 1742, after preaching to a large congregation. He reached the Foundry on the 20th, and, after seeing her, wrote in his journal, "I found my mother on the borders of eternity ; but she has no doubt or fear, nor any desire but, as soon as God should call her, to depart and be with Christ."

On the following Friday afternoon he saw that the end was very near : she was speechless, but conscious ; so he read the commendatory prayer, as he had done seven years previously for his father. It was four o'clock, and, being weary with watching and emotion, he left her side for a moment to " drink a dish of tea." One of his sisters called him back. " She opened her eyes wide," he says, "and fixed them upward for a moment. Then the lids dropped, and the soul was set at liberty, without one struggle or groan or sigh. We stood round the bed, and fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she lost her speech, ' Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.'"

It fell to Mrs. Lambert's lot to write to Charles the particulars of his mother's last days, and she said :

" She laboured under great trials, both of soul and body, some days after you left her ; but God perfected His work in her about twelve hours before He took her to Himself. She waked out of a slumber ; and we, hearing her rejoicing, attended to the words she spake, which were these, ' My dear Saviour ! are you come to help me in my extremity at last ? ' From that time she was sweetly resigned indeed ; the enemy had no more power to hurt her. The remainder of her time was spent in praise."

Mrs. Wesley was buried on Sunday, August 1st, in Bunhill Fields, John reading the funeral service of the Church of England, and Emilia, Susanna, Hetty, Anne, and Martha standing round. A large number of friends were assembled, as well as others drawn together by sympathetic curiosity. Then a hymn was sung, and John Wesley, who in the prime of his early manhood had desired so earnestly that he might not survive his mother, stood by that mother's grave and preached to the assembled multitude one of his most eloquent and impassioned sermons.

A plain stone was soon set at the head of that last resting-place, with an epitaph in verse from the pen of Charles Wesley : — " Here lies the Body of MRS. SUSANNA WESLEY, Youngest and last surviving daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley."

" In sure and stedfast hope to rise, And claim her mansion in the skies, A Christian here her flesh laid down, The cross exchanging for a crown.

True daughter of affliction, she, Inured to pain and misery, Mourned a long night of grief and fears, A legal night of seventy years. The Father then revealed His Son, Him in the broken bread made known ; She knew and felt her sins forgiven, And found the earnest of her heaven. Meet for the fellowship above, She heard the call ' Arise, my love.' I come, her dying looks replied, And lamb-like, as her Lord, she died."

It was curious that the usually precise Johii neither mentioned his father on this tomb-stone, nor put the date of his mother's birth or death. He busied himself, however, in having a copperplate engraving made of a very good likeness of her taken during her later years. A copy of this forms the frontispiece to Kirk's Mother of the Wesleys, and is seen in miniature at the commencement of Mr. Stevenson's Memorials of the Wesley Family. There is also a miniature extant which shows something of what she was like in her prime. Among her far-away descendants there are one or two women who resemble her very closely in appearance.

The original tomb-stone having become much defaced by time and weather, in 1828, when memorial tablets to the memory of several distinguished Methodists were put up in the City Road Chapel at the expense of the Wesleyan Book Committee, a new stone, with a fresh inscription, was set up over Mrs. Wesley's grave. Reverence for their sweet singer did not induce them to perpetuate the whole of his verses, and the epitaph now runs : — " Here lies the body of MRS. SUSANNA WESLEY, Widow of the REV. SAMUEL WESLEY, M.A.

(late Rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire), who died July 23rd, 1742, Aged 73 years.

She was the youngest daughter of the R-EV. SAMUEL ANNESLEY, D.D., ejected by the Act of Uniformity from the Rectory of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, Aug. 24th, 1662.

She was the mother of nineteen children, of whom the most eminent were the REVS. JOHN and CHAELES WESLEY;

the former of whom was, under God, the Founder of the Societies of the People called Methodists/' " In sure and certain hope to rise, And claim her mansion in the skies, A Christian here her flesh laid down, The cross exchanging for a crown."

In 1869 Bunhill Fields, though long before closed to interments, was secured as a cemetery in perpetuity, planted with trees, and laid out with walks leading close to the most remarkable graves. The spot where Mrs. Wesley's remains are is where the numbers 17 and 42 intersect on the outer wall, and a few yards west-by-south from the tomb of John Bunyan, who •was alive and preaching in her long-past girlhood.

An obelisk of Sicilian marble erected to her memory has stood opposite the City Road Chapel, fronting Bunhill Fields, since December 1870, bearing a very similar inscription to the one last given.

This little life of Susanna Wesley can hardly be better concluded than in the words of the late Isaac Taylor, himself the son of a mother who, with her husband's assistance, educated the whole of her very large family, and had the satisfaction of seeing them grow up to be among the most cultivated and pious persons of their own or any other generation of English men and women : " The Wesleys' mother was the mother of Methodism in a religious and moral sense ; for, her courage, her submissiveness to authority, the high tone of her mind, its independence, and its selfcontrol, the warmth of her devotional feelings and the practical direction given to them, came up and were visibly repeated in the character and conduct of her sons."