Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith
The Bible is filled with biography – one character after another parade across the pages. God loves to teach lasting lessons through the lives of individuals. With that in mind, Stephen Davey has undertaken a special biographical series illustrating biblical truths through the lives of contemporary believers. These ordinary men and women provide a wonderful legacy. They are influenced and influential because of their faith in God. They are Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith.
Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith
The Enduring Legacy of a Godly Mother: The Story of Susanna Wesley
Have you ever wondered how the upbringing of historical figures shaped their future contributions to society? Join us as we uncover the remarkable life of Susanna Wesley, the mother and mentor of John and Charles Wesley. Discover how her unwavering faith, dedication to her family, and commitment to creating an atmosphere of reverence in her home laid the foundation for her sons' ministries and left a lasting legacy.
As we journey through Susanna's life, we'll explore the challenges she faced during some of the worst years in England's history, including the hostility her family encountered in their small parish. Be inspired by the incredible story of how John, their youngest son, was saved from a burning home, later adopting the motto of being a "brand snatched from the burning" both physically and spiritually.
Finally, we'll delve into Susanna's real-life struggles as she navigated her marriage and raised 21 children. Despite her husband Samuel's anger, abandonment, and financial irresponsibility, Susanna stood firm in her convictions, demonstrating a faith and commitment to God's sovereignty that brought her through difficult times. Don't miss this compelling episode that explores the powerful impact a mother's guidance and mentorship can have on the lives of her children and beyond.
This series is available as a book. Learn more: https://www.wisdomonline.org/heroes
Music. Welcome to Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith. As you listen, through this series, stephen Davie will introduce you to ordinary men and women whose lives and legacies were influenced by their faith in God. I'm your host, scott Wiley. This series is produced by Wisdom International. You can learn more and access all of our other resources at WisdomOnlineorg. Perhaps you've heard of John and Charles Wesley. What you might not know is that in many ways, their ministry is a direct result of the private ministry of their self-sacrificing mother, susanna, because she considered her home a great mission field. Her life is still bearing fruit to this day. Here, stephen, to introduce you to Susanna Wesley.
Speaker 2:Music. While King Solomon walked with God during his early and middle years, he earned a reputation for being one of the wisest men alive, as I'm sure you're familiar with all of that. In fact, when the Queen of Sheba came to visit him to survey his incredible wealth and kingdom, she said to Solomon, before returning to her home, these words recorded in First Kings it was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. Nevertheless, i did not believe the reports until I came and my eyes had seen it. You exceed the report I had been given concerning your wisdom and prosperity. The half had not been told me. One of the most remarkable unspoken, unseen credits in the life of this young king was the testimony of the woman who was his early mentor and teacher In that classic thirty-first chapter of Proverbs.
Speaker 2:It opens with the words of King Lemuel, the oracle which his mother taught him. Lemuel is one of those names referring, i believe, to Solomon. We're told in 2 Samuel, chapter 12, verse 24, that David named him Solomon. That's a derivative of Shalom. He was anticipating that his son would experience in his kingdom the peaceful reign he had never experienced, and that name was part of his prayer request. We're also told in 2 Samuel 12 that God gave Solomon a name. It says in that text Now, the Lord loved him and sent word through Nathan, the prophet, and he named him Jedediah. For the Lord's sake, jedediah simply means loved by the Lord. If two names isn't enough of a legacy to try to live up to, there's a third name Lemuel. I would agree with Old Testament scholars who see this not as a proper name but as a term of dedication, evidently given then to Solomon by his mother. Lemuel simply means dedicated back to God. If you remember his background, solomon's mother happens to be Bathsheba, and the second son born to her and David. She dedicates back to God, evidently repenting along with David of their earlier sin. And the name that she gives them, lemuel, was used then by Solomon in that classic chapter in Proverbs 31. Effectively, stating that these were the principles taught to me by my mother, who happens to be, by the way, bathsheba Gives an interesting context, doesn't it, to that chapter.
Speaker 2:When you read through the book of Proverbs, one of the things you're struck with is how often Solomon's Proverbs repeatedly challenge us to listen not only to the teaching of our fathers, but the teaching of our mothers, like every godly mother, ought to love the book of Proverbs and take heart, because Solomon, and evidently the Holy Spirit through him, believed that a mother's advice, a mother's counsel, was equally significant to their children's lives and hearts as the father, for instance. Solomon would write it this way in Proverbs, chapter one, and that's the text by which you may write the name of the individual. I'm going to briefly introduce to you Proverbs, chapter one, verses eight and nine. That particular Proverbs, solomon, writes Hear, my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck. Solomon will effectively repeat the same proverb over in chapter six, and let me read you the paraphrase of that text by Eugene Peterson. He writes it this way Follow your father's good advice and don't wander away from your mother's teaching. Wrap yourself in them from head to foot. Wear them like a scarf around your neck. Wherever you walk, they'll guide you. Whenever you rest, they'll guard you. When you wake up, they'll tell you what's next. Their sound advice is a beacon. Their good teaching is a light moral discipline for your life's path. In other words, listen up when your father gives you godly advice and don't take your mother's counsel any less likely. Listen to her as well. And all the mothers in here said All right, this is just for you. All right, there's your bone, i threw you.
Speaker 2:If you dig back into church history 300 years or so ago, you find one particular woman worth getting to know. She attempted to live up to this responsibility of Proverbs, chapter one, verses eight and nine, a responsibility to teach and instruct and counsel her children with biblical truth. Her name was Susanna Wesley. She was born into a pastor's family in the late 1600s. Now, to give you a sort of a setting of the stage so that we can better understand her and appreciate her, the 17th and the 18th centuries were among the worst years in England's history. If you think our generation is morally bankrupt, just go back in time to these years.
Speaker 2:One author wrote that England had degenerated into a moral cesspool. Thomas Carlisle, the 19th century philosopher and, by the way, an unbeliever, wrote that England had a stomach that was well alive, but its soul was dead. Lawyer William Blackstone visited the church of every major clergyman in London during the same period of time and later wrote that in most sermons he wrote it was impossible to tell whether the preacher was a follower of Cicero, a dev helemaal б Muhammad or Jesus Christ. Gambling was so extensive that another historian called England one vast casino. Newborns were left exposed to die in the streets, just as in late Roman days, tickets to public executions were sold like theater tickets. The slave trade further calloused the nation's conscience. The same author wrote historians now recognize that the nation of England changed course in the 18th century largely through the great awakening and the ministries of George Whitfield and John Wesley, among others, including his brother Charles.
Speaker 2:Most people know of these founders of Methodism, john and Charles Wesley. Rather, few know much about the woman who served as their early teacher and mentor. This woman named Susanna, by the way and I think you'll appreciate her as we go along she would not have been surprised at all when two of her sons would become the catalyst for great awakening. She kind of expected that, i think. Two men whom God would use to literally reshape England spiritually, intellectually, morally and for years to come. Let me back up to the beginning.
Speaker 2:Susanna was born into the home of a London pastor and his wife. She was the youngest of 25 children 25, you heard that right Now. Since this was before, tv shows featured large families, and these families had no royalties then to live off of. They suffered poverty, as you could imagine. Susanna's father passed down to his youngest daughter. They seem to be fairly close. His own passionate personality was passionate for justice and the holiness of God and he kind of gave her, i think, his backbone of steel. In fact, on one occasion Susanna's father, which I found myself kind of digging into his life I had to stop because I really wasn't pursuing his story. But on one occasion Susanna's father was invited to preach the parliament and he chose as his text Job 27.5, which reads far be it from me that I should declare any of you right, what a text, huh, i don't think he'd do well in Washington either, by the way. And he was never invited back.
Speaker 2:Surprise, surprise, during his father's ministry the church grew tremendously and he was involved in a seminary and young seminarians would often visit with him, sometimes in his home. On one occasion a young man named Samuel, the young seminarian, came for a visit. Susanna was 13 at the time and he was 19. Now, this is the part you might not want your daughters to hear. Okay, but they immediately had an attraction for each other and a few years later they married. Their first child would be born a year later. Now, all of Samuel was an Oxford scholar. This young man she married.
Speaker 2:He was placed by the Church of England in a small country, parish, 150 miles away from London, population 206. Their parsonage was literally a mud hut, with no glass in the windows, just wooden shutters. In fact, one author said that the house was perched on a rutted mud road, surrounded by little farmsteads with scraggly pesters. To make matters worse, samuel wasn't well liked and it wasn't long before the parishioners responded with hostility. These were difficult days. In fact, one of the forgotten aspects of ministry during these terrible days of spiritual darkness was the price paid by those who preached the gospel. And they would be among them. In fact, in my research I cataloged these following abuses by people living around them, people in their parish, even attending church with them. Several I'll just string together. They demonstrated their displeasure by mocking the children. On a couple of occasions they burned the family crops, they damaged the parsonage, burning it to the ground. On one occasion They slit the udder of the family cow so she couldn't give milk and they even killed the family dog. On one occasion, when Samuel's political views defended the king. Villagers gathered around that parsonage one night, not knowing, by the way, that Samuel was away on church business and Susanna and her children were there alone, but they shouted through the entire night, beating on drums and firing their weapons. Susanna at that moment was just recovering from delivering her sixteenth child, and the baby's nurse was so exhausted after that night of commotion and childbirth that she lapsed into a deep sleep, rolling over on the baby and crippling it for life.
Speaker 2:A few years later, in 1709, villagers torched the Wesley's home in the middle of the night. They all scrambled out to safety, including Susanna, who at that time was expecting her 21st child. When they got outside they did a head count and found they were missing one of their children, six-year-old Jackie that was his nickname He went by. His real name was John. He had awakened later but was unable to go down the stairs because of the fire. So he stood on a chest by the open window and was spotted by a neighbor down below, and one neighbor picked up another neighbor on top of his shoulders and reached up and grabbed little John, or little Jackie, and literally snatched him moments before the roof fell in.
Speaker 2:John would later go on in his ministry and take as his life motto, testifying that he was a quote brand snatched from the burning. He met it both physically and spiritually. That didn't end their troubles. One parishioner demanded immediate payment of a debt that Samuel was unable to pay and he had his pastor thrown into debtor's prison. Now, after that little list, you might wonder if God should call you into something a little more safe. Frankly, we have no idea today of what it meant to preach the truth as it relates to the current issues of of the day. In fact, if you do a little study on that brand plucked from the burning, john Wesley's ministry as chapel pulpit in London was designed so that it was entered down from the balcony.
Speaker 2:It could not be accessed from the floor, and that was to protect John. On one occasion he preached on the evil of slavery and the congregation rioted, breaking apart the pews, and he was able to escape up into the balcony, into offices that I've had the opportunity to tour there in that balcony area. I've stood in his pulpit in marvel. That his courage. He was well prepared, by the way, by watching his own parents suffer greatly.
Speaker 2:None of their ministry challenges would compare to the pain of losing so many of their children. In their first seven years of marriage, susanna would deliver seven children. Three would die, which included a set of twins. They would end up having 21 children, but only nine of them would survive childhood. Seven burying 11 of your children, including two sets of twins. It would be these surviving children that mattered most to Susanna. She literally dedicated her life to them to live out Proverbs, chapter one, verse eight and nine. To teach and to counsel their minds and hearts, to wrap around their hearts truth, like you'd wrap a scarf around your neck to keep warm.
Speaker 2:Susanna refused to teach her children until they turned five, and then they began in earnest. In fact, she expected them to memorize the entire alphabet on their first day of school, and all of them were able to accept two, and she recorded in her journal that she feared they were a bit slow. The Wesley daughters were not excluded in an education probably influenced by the fact that Susanna's father had taught her to read when she was a little girl and allowed her to roam in his vast library when she was a little girl. So she adopted that and her girls, along with her boys, were taught Latin, greek, hebrew, poetry, the classics, music and history. She would teach for three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon.
Speaker 2:She was called by one biographer the queen of structure. She had to to survive, frankly, but she was very structured. Everything was on a schedule, from the moment they awakened at six o'clock in the morning to winding down the day with an hour of personal study, prescribed by her in the word, by each child before candles were snuffed out at exactly eight pm. She would put it this way, and I found this interesting In one of her letters she wrote for a child to grow into a self-disciplined adult, they must first be a parent-disciplined child. She would tell others that she didn't want her children to become educated ruffians, and so they were taught manners and obedience again during very dark, crude, wicked, immoral days. They were to remain silent at the dinner table, play only with carefully selected companions, and they were required to speak in precise English without the use of any slang.
Speaker 2:For those of you who've read her biography, you know how she became rather famous for her rules of conduct, sixteen of them and all. I came across several different versions of them in my research and they all said basically the same thing, and I'll give you seven or eight of them. One no sinful act should pass without punishment. Number two no child should be beaten twice for the same fault. Number three promises are to be strictly enforced and observed. Number four teach the children to fear the rod. Number five eating between meals is not allowed. I'm wondering if my mom had this same list when I was growing up. How about you? Sounds familiar. Number six there to be taught to pray as soon as they can speak. There to be given nothing for which they cry, but only that when asked politely. One more any intention toward obedience, even if the performance was not as well as it should have been, is to be accepted and encouraged.
Speaker 2:Pretty wise, she wasn't just simply interested in order and academics and good manners. She wanted her children to reverence the Lord above everything and to live holy lives. In fact, she would write to an older son after he left on his own, And I quote when the will of a child is totally subdued and is brought to revere and stand in awe of the parents, that becomes the foundation of a truly religious education. Only then is a child capable of being governed by righteous thinking. I found this one illustration of her counsel.
Speaker 2:One day, one of her daughters wanted to be involved in something that wasn't terribly bad, but it wasn't altogether right. When Susanna told her that she couldn't be involved in it, her daughter protested. It was one evening and she and her mother were sitting there beside a fire that had gone out, a dead fire. Her mother said reach over there and pick up that bit of coal. Well, i don't want to do that. Mother Susanna said but the fire is out and you won't be burned. Well, i know that, but it will blacken my hands. Exactly, said Susanna, that thing which you wish to do will not burn you, but it will blacken your hands.
Speaker 2:One visitor to their home later wrote that the Wesley children were a cluster of bright outgoing argumentative. I'm glad they added that part boys and girls living on the plainest substance, yet learning in an atmosphere of reverence, ultimately to God. Now, sometimes, in order to maintain this kind of environment, susanna took matters into her own hands. In fact, she will often have to take matters into her own hands, as I'll show you in a moment. Sometimes she went against the cultural norms and the sensitivities of those around her and it didn't seem to really matter. She reminded me of her father, who chose to preach to parliament about how none of them were right.
Speaker 2:Once, while her husband was in London defending another minister against charges of heresy, he had appointed another man Mr Inman was his name to preach in his place the Sunday sermons. Evidently he wasn't up to the job and the sermons were boring. They were stale meanderings, and so Susanna promptly began an afternoon service for the family. She gathered them to sing a few psalms, a few prayers, and then she read to them a sermon that she selected from a book in her husband's library, typically a sermon by a Puritan. Now, the service originally began for the Wesley household, but it wasn't long before others found out about it and began showing up. Before long, the parsonage and the lawn was overflowing with more than 200 people, while the church service in the morning dwindled and nothing. So Mr Inman wrote to Samuel and complained that his wife had begun a competing worship service. Samuel wrote to his wife telling her to stop immediately. She wrote back that the meetings quote are having a genuine and effective ministry to those who attended and that Mr Inman is the only one objecting And the services continued, because my wife starts a reading sermon in the afternoon, by the way, don't go. Okay, she'll probably know that right now You can imagine, with all the activity and challenges of this household, that Susanna hardly had any time alone.
Speaker 2:One biographer wrote that she struggled to find a secret place to get away and she finally gave up telling her children that whenever they came in and saw her with her apron over her head, she was in prayer and could not be disturbed. Imagine the only way you can get alone is pull your apron over your head and there's your quiet time. So she found time not only for herself and her children, but as they aged, she actually began to give each child attention individually. In fact, after her oldest moved away, she decided to intensify her personal counsel with her remaining eight children, and so she devised a plan to spend one hour a week with each child in conversation. We have her schedule On Monday it was Mali, on Tuesday it was Heady, wednesday was for Nancy, thursday held an hour for Jackie, friday was Patty's day, saturday was Little Charles' day And Sunday two hours devoted individually to Emilia and Susanna, nicknamed Suki, dedicated to providing the counsel of biblical truth.
Speaker 2:Like other biographies in our study in this series, it's kind of tempting to put a period here and leave well enough alone, in fact, most of what I knew about Susanna and Samuel Wesley ended with what I've just delivered to you. Other factors are worth noting, in fact, in order to have a realistic perspective on the home, on raising children, on ministry. Giving certain realities hidden behind closed doors and appearing as if they didn't exist, i think, does a lot of damage. For one thing, especially in the church, we create heroes out of clay pots, and we're all clay pots, aren't we? We assume also that if we do everything we see somebody else doing, at least that which we visibly see, that our lives will be as satisfied and fulfilling as we assume their lives are. Maybe, if I use these 16 rules of conduct, i make sure my kids are structured and they're in bed by 8 pm and I have devotions under my apron, maybe I'll have the kind of home Charles and Susanna had and all my children will become participants in the coming great awakening. We could be left to believe that That only works if you don't know much about their home, or anyone else's home for that matter.
Speaker 2:The truth is, samuel and Susanna struggled their entire marriage with inflexible personalities and stubborn wills. In fact, on one occasion Samuel prayed at the dinner table for the king, and at the end of the prayer, everyone said Amen except Susanna. He demanded to know why, and she simply told him that King William of Orange was not the rightful king, but King James II was the one who should be on the throne. She would not say Amen. Samuel stood to his feet in front of the children and demanded she repent and say Amen. She refused. He then said Well, we must part ways, for if there are two kings, then we shall have two beds, and he left the house in a fury. A couple of months later he returned to see if she changed her mind, and she hadn't, after which he told her that he would leave her, unfortunately, and never see her or the children again. It wasn't the first time he had left in a rage and it wouldn't be the last. On his way out of town on that particular incident, by the way Samuel met another clergyman who persuaded him to persist in his marriage vows, regardless of his wife's political views. So he relented. And on his way back to the house, samuel discovered that the parsonage was on fire, more than likely by villagers once again. So he stayed, rebuilt the parsonage, reconciling with Susanna. They agreed to disagree about which king should be on the throne, and their fifteenth child, john Wesley, was born a year later.
Speaker 2:Other issues plagued their home. Samuel was not only a poor manager of money. He evidently didn't really care to repay his debts as he should. He would go to jail twice for failing to pay his bills and it would be the mercy of others to bail him out. He had several failed attempts to make money beyond his ministry and, frankly, beyond his abilities. For instance, he was convinced that what the church really needed was an exhaustive commentary on the book of Job in Latin, which the average person couldn't read. One biographer wrote that Samuel used most of their meager funds for this publication, which they never sold. He then tried publishing poetry, but it was an embarrassment and a joke And he seemed oblivious to it all. Perhaps you've seen that in others, that lack of self-objectivity where someone is convinced that they are good at something and everybody just kind of bites their lip around them, not willing to tell them the truth. This was the case here. As a result, the Wesley's lived on the edge of destitution. They lived in perpetual debt owing to Samuel's stubbornness. In fact, his debts would never be repaid fully until after he died and John, his son, paid them off.
Speaker 2:Whatever consistency in the home was due primarily to Susanna's efforts, but trying to raise them alone presented its own challenges. While the world knows a lot about two of her 21 children, the truth is she would be challenged and heartbroken over and over again with children who chose not to walk with Christ. Even after all of her efforts. And this is worth saying as well, because, i fear, especially in the church, even to this day, there is the belief that if you do A, b and C, out comes a spiritually minded child. Ladies and gentlemen, we can provide the truth. God's spirit alone produces a spiritually minded child.
Speaker 2:Let me give you some illustrations, as unfortunate as they are. Their daughter, susanna, the one nicknamed Suki, chose to marry an unbeliever who ended up physically abusing her. She nearly died in childbirth and finally, suffering from her husband's cruelty, fled with her children to London, refused to ever reconcile again. Their daughter, amelia, also fell in love with an unbeliever but ended the relationship after her brothers persuaded her, counseled her Again the absent person here is Samuel, the father in his counsel. But her brothers counseled her and she listened.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, at the age of 44, amelia was so concerned that she would never marry that. She married too quickly a man without proof of his character. He soon took her life savings and left her with his debts and their dying baby. Another daughter, they nicknamed Hedy, ran off with a lawyer who promised her a future, home and marriage. A few months later he changed his mind and she returned home pregnant and disgraced. Unfortunately, her father, samuel, disowned her and then foolishly demanded that she marry a local plumber to rescue her reputation. She agreed and then endured an unhappy marriage.
Speaker 2:Only after Samuel's death did she and her mother, susanna, reconcile, and they enjoyed a rich, affectionate relationship. Finally, their daughter, martha, also married a man without genuine spiritual interests. He was often unfaithful to her. On two occasions he brought home illegitimate children, fathered by himself, whom she chose to raise as if they were her own. Her husband eventually left her for another woman and then died overseas. Little wonder that Samuel's repeated abandonment of his family, his unwillingness to manage his household well, his stubborn arrogance that demanded applause for his minor achievements, all the while overlooking the needs of his wife and daughters, as you can imagine, brought great difficulty and pain into Susanna's life and a void into the lives of his daughters. In fact, susanna once wrote out a prayer, while in the crucible of pain, that sheds some light on her commitment to the sovereign purposes of God.
Speaker 2:She prayed and I quote all my sufferings by the admirable management of omnipotent goodness have concurred to promote my spiritual and eternal good. Glory be to thee, o Lord. Susanna Wesley never preached a sermon, she never published a book, she never planted a church, but she became known as the mother of Methodism. And that's because, while several of her children abandoned the faith, she so persistently believed and taught. Two of her children, john and Charles, would embrace it and would impact their world. Charles would write more than 9,000 hymns. John would preach to over a million people as the Methodist movement took England by storm, a movement named after methodical, systematic methods. How they got their name methods, systems, structured patterns, by the way, that ironically mirrored the structured upbringing under the tutelage and counsel of John and Charles' mother. That's a study all of its own. Unlike her husband, susanna said late in life, and I quote I am content to fill a little space, if God be glorified.
Speaker 2:When his father, samuel, died, john Wesley moved his mother into their ministry headquarters that included a church, a school, a clinic, a headquarters where a host of people and itinerant preachers lived. As this movement grew and she kind of became a mother to them all, she passed away on July 23, 1742, and most of her adult children gathered in those final days. Her last command to her children was recorded as this children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God. Her son, john, bought the land where she was buried. He built another home nearby where he would live And he positioned his desk near a window facing that cemetery.
Speaker 2:It was sort of a way of being reminded of the verse that his mother had obviously attempted to live out, not perfectly, but passionately. Hear, my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments around your neck. They will guide you and guard you. They will be like a beacon to your path throughout your life. It's great text, isn't it? It's great text to pursue.
Speaker 1:That was Stephen Davie, the president of Wisdom International. You're listening to his series called Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith. If you enjoyed hearing the story of Susanna Wesley, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast or wherever you're listening, and please subscribe so that you won't miss an episode. Stephen has a website filled with resources to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means and apply it to your life. Learn more at WisdomOnlineorg. I'm Scott Wiley. Thanks for listening. Join us again next time on Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith, wwwwisdomonlineorg.
