VIII.

A NEW DEPARTURE.

Where the great religious movement of the last century in England is to be traced to any human influence, the mother of John and Charles Wesley must have a large share of the sacred honour.  This will be found to fall to her by right, not only on account of that profound religious education she imparted to her children, but also by reason of the peculiar direction which she gave it.  Even in respect of their first institution of assemblies for the preaching of the Gospel outside the walls of churches or any stated places of worship, Susanna Wesley may be discovered to have led the way.

In the year 1711, during one of the protracted sojournings of Mr. Wesley in London attending Convocation, and also doing business with his publishers, his place at the parish church was supplied by a curate whose ministrations were not particularly efficient, although, as may be judged from things already told, the people of Epworth were not likely to be very exacting.

However, a notable reaction of feeling in favour of their minister had set in since the days of the fire, and the parishioners were, many of them, quietly attentive to Divine ordinances.  Mrs. Wesley, without any pronounced hostility on her part toward the curate, felt a deep echo of the popular complaint in her own soul.  Divine service at church had been cut down to one diet in the morning, and hence, to save her children and servants from temptation of mere idleness, the gifted mother felt herself called to set up a kind of service at the parsonage.  Of this step she duly apprised her husband, saying:  “I cannot but look upon every soul you leave under my care as a talent committed to me, under a trust by the great Lord of all the families of heaven and earth; and if I am unfaithful to Him or to you in neglecting to improve those talents, how shall I answer unto Him when He shall command me to render an account of my stewardship?”

As yet, all she had done was reading to, and instructing her own family.  But the news of this spread in Epworth, and a hunger for the Word arose.  The parents, brothers, and sisters of the servants dropped in till the audience was about thirty or forty.  The services consisted of praise, prayer, and reading of a short sermon.  At this time Mrs. Wesley’s mind was greatly stimulated by the accounts she had been perusing of the devoted labours of two Danish missionaries in India.  She felt impelled “to do somewhat” for Christ.

Conversation with the neighbours who had come to the parsonage-meetings shaped itself into meetings of inquirers.  She now fell back upon the library, in quest of “more awakening sermons,” which were found among her husband’s stock of Puritan authors.