CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

( CHAPTER  5 )  -  { PT.  13 } - Gradually, however, he seems to have laid himself out more and more to try to do good to others, and later was entirely taken up with it. His method of action was in the highest degree simple and unpretentious. Assisted by his brother Charles, who was then a student of Christ Church, he gathered a small society of like-minded young men in order to spend some evenings together every week studying the Greek New Testament. This was in November 1729. The members of this society were at first four in number: John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Mr. Morgan of Christ Church, and Mr. Kirkman of Merton. Somewhat later, they were joined by Mr. Ingham of Queen's, Mr. Broughton of Exeter, Mr. Clayton of Brazenose, the famous George Whitefield of Pembroke, and the well-known James Hervey of Lincoln. This little group of witnesses, as might reasonably have been expected, soon began to think of doing good to others, as well as getting good themselves. In th...

  ( CHAPTER  5 )  -  { PT.  3 } - Though paid a fair salary, he was always in financial difficulties, was once in prison for debt, and in the end, left his widow and children almost destitute. When I add to this that he was not no good terms with his parishioners, and, as poor as he was, insisted on going up to London every year to attend the very unprofitable meetings of Convocation for months at a time, the reader will probably agree with me that, like too many, he was a man for more book learning and cleverness than good sense. John Wesley's mother, Susanna, was evidently a woman of extraordinary power of mind. She was the daughter of Dr. Annesley, a man well known to readers of Puritan theology as one of the chief promoters of the six-volume Morning Exercises. He was ejected from the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, in 1662. Susannah seems to have inherited from her father the sense and strong decided judgment that distinguished her character. It was undoub...