Samuel died in the autumn of the same year, during an illness of his mother, and John Wesley left the house that day rather than break the sad news to her, and one of his sisters was commissioned to do it with all gentleness.  We find nothing but sweetness and hope in the letter which Susanna Wesley was enabled to write to her son Charles:—­“Your brother was exceedingly 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.  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.  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.”

Many Christian friends continued to visit her at Moorfields; her conversation was prized by all, and her presence on the scene and at the centre of evangelism was a power for good.  In true consistency with the memorable season at Epworth, and her own institution of the Church in the Home, Mrs. Wesley was privileged to give her testimony in favour of lay-preaching.  To John Wesley the field was now indeed “the world,” and his labours were multiplying past his strength.  While he went from place to place, Mr. Thomas Maxfield, “a young man of good sense and piety,” took charge of the work at Moorfields.  His appointed duty extended to “the reading and explaining of the Scriptures to bands and classes;” but Maxfield soon went the length of public preaching, which he did with much ability and unction.  John Wesley lost no time in coming home to check this “irregular proceeding.”  But his mother urged:—­“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 this young man, for he is as surely called to preach as you are.  Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him yourself.”  This was done; and John Wesley said, “It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good.  What am I that I should withstand God?”

Thus fitly, as became her already historic part in it, Susanna Wesley may he said to have launched the important institution of lay-preaching in the Church that bears her name.

XII.

LAST DAYS AND DEATH.

The life at Moorfields, which had been, to this venerable mother in Israel, of the character of a peaceful haven after a rough voyage, was now drawing rapidly to a close.  Her bodily illnesses much resembled those of her husband’s later years, and were, no doubt, to be in some measure attributed to the penury and hardship she had shared with him so long.

But we do not hear so much about her maladies us of the many signs of triumph over them, till by the month of July, 1742, the vital power is ebbing low, and her daughters gather round her.  The sons were out in the field.  Charles had bent over her with filial attentions, till, concluding in his own mind that her strength would hold out for a few days, he departed to his work, hoping soon to return.