“His greater living seldom cleared above £160 per annum, out of which he allowed £20 per annum to a person who had married one of his daughters. Could we on the whole fix the balance, it would easily appear whether he had been an ill husband, or careless and idle, and taken no care of his family. Let us range on the one side his income, and on the other his expenses while he has been at the top of his fortunes, taking them at the full extent:—

“His income about £200 per annum for near forty years,[[336]]£800000“Expended in sickness for above forty years,£——————
“Expenses in taking his livings, repairing houses, &c.,16000
“Rebuilding part of his house the first time,6000
“Rebuilding the whole house,40000
“Furnishing it,——————
“Eight children born and buried,——————
“Ten (thank God!) living, brought up, and educated,——————
“Most of the daughters put out to a way of living,——————
“To three sons for the best education I could get them in England,——————
“Attending the convocation three years,£15000

“Let all this be balanced, and then a guess may be easily made of his sorry management.

“He can struggle with the world, but not with Providence; nor can he resist sicknesses, fires, and inundations.”[[337]]

Such was one of the last letters that Samuel Wesley ever wrote; or rather, we ought to say dictated, for such were his afflictions and weakness, that nearly the whole of it had to be written by his wife and by his second son, who penned it from his lips. It is an ample refutation of the unnatural charges brought against him by his brother; and scatters to the winds the vague ideas of all those who, in modern times, have been apt to think of Samuel Wesley as being, upon the whole, a good-hearted sort of man; but, at the same time, in some way, a spendthrift, and one who very culpably neglected the interests of his wife and family. All this is unfounded, unjust, and cruel; the result, not of research, but of indolent ignorance, which has too readily taken for granted, that which it ought, first of all, to have examined.

CHAPTER XX.
DEATH AND CHARACTER—1735.

Mr Wesley never fully recovered from the effects of the serious accident which befell him in 1731. The reader will have perceived this in the letters given in the previous chapter. Mrs Wesley, writing to her son John, says, “Your father is in a very bad state of health; he sleeps little and eats less. He seems not to have any apprehension of his approaching exit, but I fear he has but a short time to live. It is with much pain and difficulty that he performs divine service on the Lord’s-day, which sometimes he is obliged to contract very much. Everybody observes his decay but himself.”[[338]]

Mr Wesley had a severe illness about the year 1733, which totally disabled him for six months. The first two sermons he preached after this affliction were from the words, “Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee,” (John v. 14.)

The last two sermons, noted in his memorandum-book, were preached at Epworth, August 18, 1734, on 1 Sam. xii. 17: “Is it not wheat harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord,” &c. After showing that unseasonable weather, in time of harvest, is a just judgment inflicted by the hand of God for the wickedness of the people, he proceeds to address his congregation thus:—“I am afraid, nay, too well assured, that many of you have hardened your hearts as did Pharaoh; for otherwise, how came the house of God so empty here last Sunday? The people went in shameful droves to do their own ways, and find their own pleasures, and speak their own words; and left a very small flock behind them on their knees to cry mightily to God that He would have mercy upon us, that we might not perish.”[[339]]

There is no evidence that Mr Wesley preached after this. His death-bed scene was exquisitely beautiful. His sons, John and Charles, were present, and from both of them we have accounts of it.