THE PARSON'S WIFE. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO, the people of England were in a sad state with regard both to morals and religion-the result of the contentions of the previous century between the libertyloving people of England, and the tyrannical kings of the House of Stuart. Good men of all denominations were grieved to notice the vice and wickedness which then prevailed, especially in secluded towns and villages. The small market town of Epworth, in the Isle of Axholme, a few miles from the west bank of the river Trent, below Gainsborough, was notorious for the rude immorality of its inhabitants. The Rector of the parish at that time was the Rev. SAMUEL WESLEY. He appears to have been a pious but eccentric man, and not prudent enough to avoid offending his parishioners. Twice had his house been set on fire within a few years, it was supposed by his malicious political opponents-the last time it was destroyed with many valuable books and papers, the family escaping with difficulty, and the celebrated JOHN WESLEY, his son, then a boy of six years, being lifted out of a chamber window by one man standing on the shoulders of another. The parson had a very large family, the care of which fell on his wife, who was, in every respect, a woman of distinguished piety and wonderful energy. Frequently Mr. Wesley would be in London for months together attending the Conventions of the Bishop and Clergy. Dr. Adam Clarke says: During her husband's absence Mrs. Wesley felt it her duty to pay more particular attention to her children, especially on the Lord's-day in the evening, as there was then no service in the afternoon at the church. She read prayers to them, and also a sermon, and conversed with them on religious and devotional subjects. Some neighbours happening to come in during these exercises, being permitted to stay, were so pleased and profited as to desire permission to come again. This was granted: a good report of the meeting became general; many requested leave to attend, and the house was soon filled, more than two hundred at last attending; and many were obliged to go away for want of room. As she wished to do nothing without her husband's knowledge and approbation, she acquainted him with their meeting, and the circumstances out of which it arose. While he THE PARSON'S WIFE. approved of her zeal and good sense, he stated several objections to the continuance of the meeting, which will be best seen in her answer, dated Epworth, Feb. 6, 1712, in which she says:— "I heartily thank you for dealing so plainly and faithfully with me in a matter of no common concern. The main of your objections against our Sunday evening meetings are, first, that it will look particular; secondly, my sex; and, lastly, your being at present in a public station and character. To all which I shall answer briefly. As to its looking particular, I grant it does; and so does almost everything that is serious, or that may any way advance the glory of God or the salvation of souls, if it be performed out of a pulpit, or in the way of common conversation; because in our corrupt age the utmost care and diligence have been used to banish all discourse of God or spiritual concerns out of society, as if religion were never to appear out of the closet, and we were to be ashamed of nothing so much as of professing ourselves to be christians. Το your second, I reply, that as I am a woman, so I am also mistress of a large family. And though the superior charge of the souls contained in it lies upon you as the head of the family, and as their minister; yet, in your absence, 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 these talents, how shall I answer unto him, when he shall command me to render an account of my stewardship. As these, and other such like thoughts, made me at first take a more than ordinary care of the souls of my children and servants; so knowing that our most holy religion requires a strict observation of the Lord's-day, and not thinking that we fully answered the end of the institution by only going to church, but that likewise we are obliged to fill up the intermediate spaces of that sacred time by other acts of piety and devotion; I thought it my duty to spend some part of the day in reading to and instructing my family, especially in your absence, when having no afternoon's service, we have so much leisure for such exercises; and such time I esteemed spent in a way more acceptable to God, than if I had retired to my own private devotions. This was the beginning of my present practice: other people coming in and joining with us was purely accidental. Our lad THE PARSON'S WIFE. told his parents-they first desired to be admitted; then others who heard of it begged leave also; so our company increased to about thirty, and seldom exceeded forty last winter: and why it increased since, I leave you to judge after you have read what follows. Soon after you went to London, Emily found in your study the account of the Danish Missionaries, which, having never seen, I ordered her to read it to me. I was never, I think, more affected with any thing than with the relation of their travels, and was exceeding pleased with the noble design they were engaged in. Their labours refreshed my soul beyond measure; and I could not forbear spending good part of that evening in praising and adoring the Divine goodness for inspiring those good men with such an ardent zeal for his glory; that they were willing to hazard their lives, and all that is esteemed dear to men in this world, to advance the honour of their Master Jesus. For several days I could think or speak of little else. At last it came into my mind, though I am not a man nor a minister of the gospel, and so cannot be employed in such a worthy employment as they are, yet if my heart were sincerely devoted to God, and if I were inspired. with a true zeal for his glory, and did really desire the salvation of souls, I might do somewhat more than I do. I thought I might live in a more exemplary manner in some things; I might pray more for the people, and speak with more warmth to those with whom I have no opportunity of conversing. However, I resolved to begin with my own children, and accordingly I proposed and observed the following method. I take such a proportion of time as I can best spare every night to discourse with each child by itself on something that relates to its principal concerns. On Monday I talk with Molly; on Tuesday with Hetty; Wednesday with Nancy; Thursday with Jacky;* Friday with Patty; Saturday with Charles; and with Emily and Suky together on Sunday. With those few neighbours who then came to me I discoursed more freely and affectionately than before. I chose the best and most awakening sermons we had, and I spent more time with them in such exercises. Since this our company has increased every night; for I dare deny none that asks admittance. Last Sunday I believe we had above two hundred, and yet many went away for want of room. *The celebrated JOHN WESLEY. THE PARSON'S WIFE. But I never durst positively presume to hope that God would make use of me as an instrument in doing good; the farthest I ever durst go was, It may be who can tell? With God all things are possible. I will resign myself to Him: or, as Herbert better expresses it, 'Only since God doth often make Of lowly matter for high uses meet, There will I lie until my Maker seek For some mean stuff, whereon to shew his skill, Then is my time.' And thus I rested, without passing any reflection on myself, or forming any judgment about the success or event of this undertaking. Your third objection I leave to be answered by your own judg ment. We meet not on any worldly design. We banish all temporal concerns from our society; none is suffered to mingle any discourse about them with our reading or singing; we keep close to the business of the day; and as soon as it is over they all go home. And where is the harm of this? If I and my children went a visiting on Sunday nights, or if we admitted of impertinent visits, as too many do who think themselves good christians, perhaps it would be thought no scandalous practice, though in truth it would be so. Therefore why any should reflect upon you, let your station be what it will, because your wife endeavours to draw people to the church, and to restrain them by reading, and other persuasions, from their profanation of God's most holy day, I cannot conceive. But if any should be so mad as to do it, I wish you would not regard it. For my part, I value no censure on this account. I have long since shook hands with the world, and I heartily wish I had never given them more reason to speak against me. As for your proposal of letting some other person read. Alas! you do not consider what a people these are. I do not think one man among them could read a sermon without spelling a good part of it; and how would that edify the rest? Nor has any of our family a voice strong enough to be heard by such a number of people. But there is one thing about which I am much dissatisfied; that is, their being present at family prayers. I do not speak of any concern I am under, barely because so many are present: THE PARSON'S WIFE. for those who have the honour of speaking to the great and Holy God, need not be ashamed to speak before the whole world, but because of my sex. I doubt if it be proper for me to present the prayers of the people to God. Last Sunday I fain would have dismissed them before prayers, but they begged so earnestly to stay that I durst not deny them." Mr. Wesley felt the power of the wisdom by which she spoke ; and cordially gave his approbation to her conduct: she went on her way rejoicing, and great good was done. But a worthless man, Inman, who was curate of the parish, and a few like himself, filled with envy, and perhaps even a worse principle, wrote to Mr. Wesley, highly complaining of these transactions, and stating that Mrs. Wesley had turned the parsonage house into a conventicle, &c.; that the church was likely to receive great scandal by these irregular proceedings, and that they ought not to be tolerated any longer. Mr. Wesley was alarmed; his high church principles rose up against his better judgment, and he wrote to his wife desiring her to discontinue the meetings. She received this high testimony of disapprobation with that firmness which belongs alone to conscious rectitude, and returned an answer to her husband which bears all the marks of her energetic mind, deep piety, ardent zeal, and submissive respect to the authority of her spouse. 'Epworth, Feb. 25th, 1712. "Some days since I received a letter from you, I suppose dated the 16th instant, which I made no great haste to answer, because I judged it necessary for both of us to take some time to consider before you determine in a matter of such great importance. I shall not inquire how it was possible that you should be prevailed on by the senseless clamours of two or three of the worst of your parish to condemn what you so lately approved. But I shall tell you my thoughts in as few words as possible. I do not hear of more than three or four persons who are against our meeting, of whom Inman is the chief. He and Whitely, I believe, may call it a conventicle; but we hear no outcry here, nor has any one said a word against it to me. And what does their calling it a conventicle signify? Does it alter the nature of the thing? or do you think that what they say is a sufficient reason to forbear a thing that has already done much good, and by the blessing of God may do much more? If its being called a conventicle, by those who know in their conscience they misrepresent it, |