Maternal Solicitude

OF the next five or six months of Mrs. Wesley's life nothing is recorded; so they were probably passed in as much quietude and comfort as she had ever known. In May she wrote a letter to her eldest son, which shows that what we now call teetotalism was not among the austere virtues practised either in her own circle or that in which her boy lived.

" DEAR SAMMY, " Epworth, May 22nd, 1706.

" You cannot imagine how much your letter pleased me wherein you tell me of your fear lest you should offend God ; though, if you state the case truly, I hope there is no danger of doing it in the matter you speak of.

" Proper drunkenness does, I think, certainly consist in drinking such a quantity of strong liquor as will intoxicate, and render the person incapable of using his reason with that strength and freedom as he can at other times. Now there are those that, by habitually drinking a great deal of such liquors, can hardly ever be guilty of proper drunkenness, because never intoxicated ; but this I look on as the highest kind of the sin of intemperance.

" But this is not, nor, I hope, ever will be your case. Two glasses cannot possibly hurt you, provided they contain no more than those commonly used ; nor would I have you concerned though you find yourself warmed and cheerful after drinking them ; for it is a necessary effect of such liquors to refresh and increase the spirits, and certainly the Divine Being will never be displeased at the innocent satisfaction of our regular appetites.

" But then have a care ; stay at the third glass. Consider you have an obligation to strict temperance which all have not — I mean your designation to holy orders. Remember, under the Jewish economy it was ordained by God Himself that the snuffers of the Temple should be perfect gold ; from which we may infer that those who are admitted to serve at the altar, a great part of whose office it is to reprove others, ought themselves to be most pure, and free from all scandalous actions ; and if others are temperate, they ought to be abstemious.

" Here happened last Thursday a very sad accident. You may remember one Robert Darwin, of this town. This man was at Bawtry fair, where he got drunk; and riding homeward down a hill, his horse came down with him, and he, having no sense to guide himself, fell with his face to the ground and put his neck out of joint. Those with him immediately pulled it in again, and he lived till next day; but he never spake more. His face was torn all to pieces, one of his eyes beat out, and his under-lip cut off, his nose broken down, and in short he was one of the most dreadful examples of the severe justice of God that I have known. I have been the more particular in this relation because this man, as he was one of the richest in the place, so he was one of the most implacable enemies your father had among his parishioners ; one that insulted him most basely in his troubles, one that was the most ready to do him all the mischief he could, not to mention his affronts to me and the children, and how heartily he wished to see our ruin, which God permitted him not to see. This man and one more have been now cut off in the midst of their sins since your father's confinement. I pray God amend those that are left. I am, dear Sammy, your faithful friend and mother, " SUSANNA WESLEY."

A few months later Mr. Wesley himself wrote to his boy a letter, which speaks so beautifully of the mother that no life of her would be complete which did not contain this tribute to her worth : — "DEAR CHILD, "Epworth, September 1706.

" The second part of piety regards your duty towards your parents; towards whom I verily hope you will behave yourself as you ought, to the last moment of your life; disobedience to them being generally the mother of all other vices " God Himself was doubtless infinitely pleased and satisfied in giving being to His creatures ; but I never could see any reason why this should lessen, or render unnecessary, their obligations to Him.

"But, further, if there were no obligation to our parents, on account of having received our being from them, but only subsequent benefits, as education and the like, it would follow that there is no manner of duty towards an unkind and harsh parent, which I doubt is contrary to Scripture and to reason. Nay, supposing a parent was not able to provide for his child, but be forced to expose him in infancy, and leave him to the pity and charity of others, which you know is very common in the great city where you live ; I say it would follow that, if such a child should afterwards accidentally come to know his parents, he would not be obliged to pay them any manner of duty ; which is so false that I believe nature itself would teach him otherwise. I own that the obligations of benefits, good education, and the like, when added to that of nature, make the tie much stronger ; and that those children whose parents either neglect them or give them ill examples, may be said, in one sense, to be but little beholden to them for bringing them into the world. But where these two are united we can hardly express gratitude enough for them.

" Perhaps you will think I am pleading my own cause; and so, indeed, I am in some measure, but it is the cause of my mother also ; and even your own cause, if you should ever have children. And, indeed, that of nature and civil society, which would be dissolved, or exceedingly weakened, if this great foundation-stone should be removed.

" Yet, after all, though the tenderness and endearments between parents and children, which illnatured people, who, perhaps, are not capable of them, may be apt to call 'fondness,' be a very sensible and natural pleasure, and such as I think mutual benefits only could hardly produce ; I should think, if we come to weigh obligations, that if the parents after-care, in informing the mind of the child, and launching it out into the world, are perhaps not without difficulty to themselves, in order to their living comfortable here and for ever — this must surely be owned to be much the greater and more valuable kindness ; and consequently reason will sink the sail on this side, how heavy soever affection may hang on the other.

" Now on both these accounts you know what you owe to one of the best of mothers. Perhaps you may have read of one of the Ptolemies who chose the name of Philometer as a more glorious title than if he had assumed that of his predecessor Alexander. And it would be an honest and virtuous ambition in you to attempt to imitate him, for which you have so much reason ; and often reflect on the tender and peculiar love your dear mother has always expressed towards you, the deep affliction both of body and mind which she underwent for you both before and after your birth ; the particular care she took of your education when she struggled with so many pains and infirmities ; and, above all, the wholesome and sweet motherly advice and counsel which she has often given you to fear God, to take care of your soul, as well as of your learning, to shun all vicious practices and bad examples (the doing which will equally tend to your reputation and your happiness) as well as those valuable letters she wrote you on the same subjects. You will, I verily believe, remember that these obligations of gratitude, love, and obedience, and the expressions of them, are not confined to your tender years, but must last to the very close of life, and even after that render her memory most dear and precious to you.

" You will not forget to evidence this by supporting and comforting her in her age, if it please God that she should ever attain to it (though I doubt she will not), and doing nothing which may justly displease and grieve her, or show you unworthy of such a mother. You will endeavour to repay her prayers for you by doubling yours for her, as well as your fervency in them ; and, above all things, to live such a virtuous and religious life that she may find that her care and love have not been lost upon you, but that we may all meet in heaven.

" In short, reverence and love her as much as you will, which I hope will be as much as you can. For though I should be jealous of any other rival in your heart, yet I will not be of her; the more duty you pay her, and the more frequently and kindly you write to her, the more you will please your, affectionate father, "SAMUEL WESLEY."

The tenderness of the father's nature is very touchingly shown in his whole series of letters to the " dear child" who was the first to leave home and go out into the world.

No exact date has ever been assigned to the birth of Martha, who was Mrs. Wesley's next baby, her eighth daughter and seventeenth child; but it must have been during the later months of 1706. She was an ailing and delicate infant, and from the time she began to take notice always reserved her brightest smiles for her little brother John, who was next to her in age, and about three years and a half old when she was born. Her mother's hands must have been very full during the first few months of Martha's life, though her elder girls were big enough to relieve her sometimes of the care of the child. Nevertheless, there was a break of several months in the correspondence with her first-born ; but in March 1707 she wrote him a long and earnest letter, only one passage of which need be quoted here : — " I have a great and just desire that all your sisters and your brother should be saved as well as you ; but I must own I think ray concern for you is much the greatest. What, you, my son, you, who was once the son of my extremest sorrow, in your birth and in your infancy, who is now the son of my tenderest love, my friend, in whom is my inexpressible delight, my future hope of happiness in this world, for whom I weep and pray in my retirements from the world, when no mortal knows the agonies of my soul on your account, no eye sees my tears, which are only beheld by that Father of spirits of whom I so importunately beg grace for you that I hope I may at last be heard, — is it possible that you should be damned ? O that it were impossible ! Indeed, L think I could almost wish myself accursed, so I were sure of your salvation. But still I hope, still I would fain persuade myself that a child for whom so many prayers have been offered to Heaven will not at last miscarry. '' Only a few weeks later Mrs. Wesley's heart, as well as that of her husband, was rejoiced by an official intimation that " Sammy " would probably be elected to one of the King's Scholarships at Westminster, which would enable him to go to Oxford. This drew forth another epistle from the wise yet anxious mother.

" DEAR SAMMY, "Epworth, May 7th, 1707.

" Though I wrote so lately, yet, having received advice that your election is so much sooner than I expected, I take this opportunity to advise you about it.

" The eternal, ever-blessed God, that at first created all things by His almighty power, and that does whatever pleases Him, as well among the inhabitants of earth as in the armies of heaven, you know is the only Disposer of events ; and, therefore, I would by all means persuade you solemnly to set apart some portion of time (on the Sabbath if you can) to beg His more especial direction and assistance upon a business on which a great part of your future prosperity may depend. I would have you, in the first place, humbly to acknowledge and bewail all the errors of your past life, as far as you can remember them ; and for those that have escaped your memory pray, as David did, that God would cleanse you from your secret faults.

"Then proceed to praise Him for all the mercies which you can remember you have received from His divine goodness ; and then go on to beg His favour in this great affair, and do all this in the name and through the mediation of the blessed Jesus.

" Sammy, do not deceive yourself. Man is not to be depended on; God is all in all. Those whom He blesses shall be blessed indeed. When you have done this, entirely resign yourself and all your fortunes to the Almighty God ; nor be too careful about your being elected, nor troubled if disappointed.

" If you can possibly, set apart the hours of Sunday, in the afternoon, from four to six, for this employment, which time I have also determined to the same work. May that Infinite Being, whose we are, and whom I hope we endeavour to serve and love, accept and bless us.

" SUSANNA WESLEY."

The lad was finally elected, and in some sort entered on a new life ; that is to say, he had fresh duties and a wider sphere. He probably had a good voice, and some knowledge of music, or he would not have been chosen for a King's Scholar, as boys occupying that position are almost always choristers at the Chapel Royal. This brings them into notice, and they receive many invitations into musical and aristocratic society. Mrs. Wesley was terribly afraid that her son might become of the world, worldly, and wrote to warn and exhort him : — "DEAR SAMMY, " Epworth, August 30th, 1707.

" Prithee how do you do in the midst of so much company and business, to preserve your mind in any temper fit for the service of God ? I am sadly afraid lest you should neglect your duty towards Him. Take care of the world, lest it unawares steal away your heart, and so make you prove false to those vows and obligations which you have laid upon yourself, in the covenant you personally made with the ever blessed Trinity, before your reception of the Holy Communion. Have you ever received the Sacrament at London ? If not, consider what has been the cause of your neglect, and embrace the next opportunity.

" SUSANNA WESLEY/' In October Mrs. Wesley's motherly sympathies were called forth by hearing that her boy was laid up with rheumatism ; but by the end of November he had recovered, and she wrote him a very long letter, chiefly theological, but containing some plain words on the temptations likely to assail a youth on the threshold of manhood. The opening and closing paragraphs are alone suited to these pages : — 5 * " Epworth, " DEAR SAMMY, November 27th, 1707.

" We both complain of not having often heard from each other. What foundation there is for complaints on your side I know not ; but I am apt to suspect you have written more letters to me than I have received, for you lately sent one that never came to my hands, though I was advertised of some part of the contents of it, as of you having received the Sacrament, at which I was greatly pleased, and that you desire some directions how to resist temptations, and some particular advice how to prepare for the reception of the blessed Communion.

**•»#* ' ' Of temperance in recreation I shall say little. I do not know what time is assigned you for it, and I think your health and studies require that you should take a pretty deal of exercise. You know whether your heart be too much set upon it. If it be, I will tell you what rule I observed in the same case when I was young and too much addicted to childish diversions, which was this : never to spend more time in any matter of recreation in one day than I spent in private religious duties. I leave it to your consideration whether this is practicable by you or not. I think it is.

" I am so ill, and have with so much pain written this long letter, that I gladly hasten to a conclusion, and shall leave your request about the Sacrament unanswered till I hear from you; and then, if I am in a condition to write, I will gladly assist you as well as I can. May God, in His infinite mercy, direct you in all things.

" SUSANNA WESLEY."

About three weeks after the writing of this letter Mrs. Wesley was prematurely confined of her eighteenth child, Charles, who became the sweet singer of Methodism. This was on December 18th, 1707. The babe was a frail and almost inanimate little creature, and neither cried nor opened his eyes for several weeks. He was too fragile even to be dressed, and was kept wrapped up in wool for some time. When the moment arrived at which he should have come into the world if all had been well with his mother, he opened his eyes and cried, and thenceforth throve tolerably. He was somewhat delicate as a youth and young man, but lived to a good old age. In these circumstances Mrs. Wesley could not be expected to write letters, and there is a long gap in her correspondence with Samuel, which the father did his best to fill up.