Produced by Skip Doughty, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers
by
My horse was very lame, and my head did ache exceedingly. Now what
occurred I here avow is truth—let each man account for it as he
will. Suddenly I thought, "Can not God heal man or beast as He
will?" Immediately my weariness and headache ceased; and my horse
was no longer lame.
—Wesley's Journal
Once in a speech on "The Increase of Population," Edmund Burkeintimated his sympathy with Malthus, and among other interesting datamade note that Susanna Wesley was the twenty-fourth child of herparents. Burke, however, neglected to state how many sisters andbrothers Susanna had who were younger than herself, and also whatwould have been the result on church history had the parents ofSusanna named their twenty-third child Omega.
John Wesley was the fifteenth child in a family of nineteen. And yetthe mother did her own work, thus eliminating the servant-girlproblem, and found time to preach better sermons to largercongregations than did her husband. Four of Susanna's children becamefamous—John, Charles, Samuel and Martha.
John rebuked and challenged the smug, self-satisfied and formalreligion of the time; had every church-door locked against him;sympathized with the American Colonies in their struggle for freedom;and founded a denomination which today is second in wealth and numbersto one alone.
John Wesley left no children after the flesh, but his influence hascolored the entire fabric of Christianity. There is no denominationbut that has been benefited and bettered by his beautiful spirit.
Charles Wesley was the greatest producer of hymns the world has everseen, having written over six thousand songs, and rewritten most ofthe Bible in lyric form. He was "the brother of John Wesley," anddelighted all his life in being so called. No one ever called JohnWesley the brother of Charles. John had a will like a rope of silk—itslackened, but never broke. He was resourceful, purposeful,courageous, direct, healthy, handsome, wise, witty, happy; and he rodeon horseback, blazing the way for many from darkness into light.Charles followed.
Three of the children of Charles Wesley became great musicians, andone of them was the best organist of his time in England.
The third noted brother in this remarkable family was Samuel, who wasthirteen years older than John, and exercised his prerogative to pooh-pooh him all his life. Samuel was an educated High Churchman, a Latinscholar, and a poet of quality. Samuel always had his dignity withhim. He wrote and published essays, epics, and histories of nobodies;but of all his writings, the only thing from his pen that is now readand enjoyed is a letter of remonstrance to his mother because he hearsthat she has joined "Jack's congregation of Methodists, and is arenegade from the true religion." Needless to say the "true religion"to Samuel was the religion in which he believed—all others werefalse. Samuel being an educated Churchman did not know