CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18th CENTURY: - ( JOHN WESLEY-THE MAN ) - [ CHAPTER 5 ] - { PT. 2 }


 ( JOHN WESLEY-THE MAN )  -  { PT.  2 } - Those who want more must look elsewhere. John Wesley was born on June 17,  1703, at Epworth, in North Lincolnshire, of which parish his father was rector, or pastor. He was the ninth of a family of nineteen children ( nine died in infancy ). The oldest son, Samuel, was for some years director of Westminster School, was a close friend of the famous Bishop Atterbury, and died as headmaster of Tiverton School. The second son, John, was founder of the Methodist communion. The third son, Charles, was John's companion and fellow laborer throughout almost his entire life. John Wesley's father, Samuel, was man of considerable learning and great activity of mind. As a writer, he was always bringing out something either in propose or in verse, but nothing, unhappily, which was ever acceptable to the reading public, or is much cared for in the present day. As a politician, he was a zealous supporter of the Revolution that brought the House of Orange into power in England, and it was because of this that Queen Mary offered him the rectory of Epworth. As a clergyman, Samuel Wesley seems to have been a diligent pastor and preacher, and was of the theological school of Archbishop Tillotson. As a manager of his worldly affairs, he appears to have been most unsuccessful. 

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