HIER CHARACTER.

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Christian." Her intellectuality and determination were displayed in the fact that, like her father and her husband, "in early youth she had chosen her path."

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Much has been said justly in commendation of her, but sometimes unadvisedly, to the expressed or implied disparagement of her husband. She examined the controversy between the dissenters and the Church of England, and satisfied herself that the dissenters were in the wrong, thus condemning her own father and grandfather." Richard Watson, in his "Life of John Wesley," remarks: "Great as were her natural and acquired talents, she must, at the age of thirteen years, have been a very imperfect judge." It is not, however, known so generally that she went much further, and reasoned herself out of evangelical Christianity into Socinianism; but from this she was reclaimed by the vigorous arguments and sound learning of her husband.

It is difficult to ascertain the extent and details of her mental training. Dr. Adam Clarke, who, through his acquaintance with John Wesley, enjoyed peculiar opportunities of ascertaining the facts, says that she appears to have had the advantage of a liberal education so far as Latin, Greek, and French enter into it. Abundant proofs exist of a thoroughly disciplined mind, extraordinary penetration, accurate knowledge on every current subject, remarkable facility in theological discussions, and excellent style as a writer. Her letters compare favorably with those of the wisest and best women in all ages, and many of them might be attributed to the wisest and best of men without discrediting their just reputation.

Her system of domestic training has elicited the admiration of all. A fact having an important bearing upon subsequent events is that Samuel Wesley's wife was throughout life a "Jacobite High-church woman, whose ecclesiastical

creed was a matter of passionate sentiment and affection, and was cherished as warmly under Low-church William as during Queen Anne's High-church régime." '

She believed in the divine right of kings, and in the headship of the legitimate king over the Church of England. The use of the word "Jacobite" arose from the primary manifestation of the spirit in connection with James II., who was compelled to abdicate-Jacob being the Latin form of James.

Adam Clarke says that he had from the lips of John Wesley this anecdote: "Were I," said John Wesley, "to write my own life, I should begin it before I was born, merely for the purpose of mentioning a disagreement between my father and mother. Said my father to my mother one day after family prayer, 'Why did you not say "Amen" this morning to the prayer for the king?' 'Because,' said she, 'I do not believe the Prince of Orange to be the king.' 'If that be the case,' said he, 'you and I must part; for if we have two kings we must have two beds. My mother was inflexible. My father went immediately to his study, and after a season by himself set out for London, where, being Convocation-man for the diocese of Lincoln, he remained without visiting his own house for the remainder of the year. On March 8th, in the following year (1702) King William died, and as both my father and mother were agreed as to the legitimacy of Queen Anne's title, the cause of disagreement ceased. My father returned to Epworth, and conjugal harmony was restored."

Mr. Tyerman undertakes to show that the portion of this strange story which reflects so severely on Samuel Wesley cannot be true. They had lived together a dozen years

1 "The Churchmanship of John Wesley," by James H. Rigg, D.D. (Lon. don, Wesleyan Conference Office).

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DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND INFLUENCE.

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since William and Mary's accession, and every Sunday and Friday Samuel Wesley had prayed for King William. Quoting a beautiful passage from a letter of the father to his son Samuel, he shows how deeply they loved each other: "Reverence and love your mother. Though I should be jealous of any other rival in your breast, 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 father." Tyerman assumes the absolute improbability of such a story, and, entering into details, proves that Convocation was summoned twice in the year 1701: first, February 10th and lasted till June 24th, when it was prorogued; convened again December 31st; and between nine and ten weeks after, when King William died, March 8, 1702, it was again prorogued. Further, on the 14th and 18th of May of that same year he finds that Samuel Wesley was at Epworth attending his wife with affectionate tenderness when she became the mother of twins. He adduces letters written by Samuel Wesley from Epworth to Archbishop Sharpe at that time, and thus, as well as in other ways, furnishes satisfactory proof that he was not away from his family or charge for a longer period than ten or twelve weeks.

This incident, doubtless, has a foundation of truth as respects a temporary disagreement, though the extent of it is exaggerated. That its cause was a question of judgment and conscience, indicates the strength of will which. characterized the parents of Wesley, and the influence of ecclesiastical and civil ideas upon their characters and actions.

An examination of Mrs. Wesley's letters, and a comparison of English and American writers, justifies Isaac Taylor's estimate: "The Wesleys' mother was the mother of Methodism in a religious and moral sense; for her cour

age, her submissiveness to authority, the high tone of her mind, its independence and its self-control, 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.

"When Mrs. Wesley, writing to her husband concerning the irregular services she had carried on during his absence in the rectory kitchen for the benefit of her poor neighbors, said, 'Do not advise, but command me to desist,' she was bringing to its place a corner-stone of the future Methodism. In this emphatic expression of a deep compound feeling-a powerful conscientious impulse and a fixed principle of submission to rightful authority-there was condensed the very law of her son's course as the founder and legislator of a sect."1

1 "Wesley and Methodism," by Isaac Taylor (American edition, Harper Brothers, 1860).

CHAPTER III.

THE MAN OF PROVIDENCE.

SAMUEL and Susannah Wesley were the parents of nineteen children; but when the Epworth rectory was burned in February, 1709, the parochial registers were lost, including the record of the births of their children. George James Stevenson states that after years of research eighteen out of the nineteen have been found, the years and in most cases the months of their births and the months and years of their deaths authenticated. The first was Samuel, who became an important personage; the tenth was John, who died in the year of his birth; the eleventh was Benjamin, who also died in his natal year. The fifteenth was John Benjamin, and the eighteenth, Charles. It was the love of their mother for John and Benjamin, who died so soon, that led her to name the next son, who lived to be baptized for both; but for the reason assigned, no record exists concerning the place of the birth of this child. When a few hours old he was baptized "John Benjamin " by his father at Epworth; but the second name was never used by the family, although the fact itself is preserved in documents belonging to other relatives."

In the fire which destroyed the registers of the parish of Epworth, John Wesley, then six years old, was imperiled, and his escape is one of the most extraordinary deliverances from imminent death on record. When Samuel Wesley