TO HIS
LONG AND USEFUL LABOURS AT HOME AND ABROAD,
AND AS AN
EXPRESSION OF THE BENEFIT DERIVED FROM
HIS PRIVATE FRIENDSHIP
BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
I have the conviction that due honour has never yet been paid to Samuel Wesley. The praises of his noble wife have been sung loudly and long; and no one acquainted with her character and history, can doubt that Mrs Wesley deserves all the laurels that have been awarded her. While the general public, however, have justly regarded her as a lady of the most eminent abilities, and most exalted piety, they have been in danger of thinking that her husband, though learned, was often foolish; and though pious, was painfully eccentric, stern, and quarrelsome. This is utterly unfounded, and cruelly unjust. I submit, with all due deference to others, that while the Methodists owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to “the mother of the Wesleys,” they owe an equal debt to the honest-hearted father. I trust that the present work contains sufficient evidence of this.
It is also hoped that the following pages will help the reader to a better understanding of the position occupied by Samuel Wesley’s sons, John and Charles; and of the difficulties and discouragements encountered by the illustrious first Methodists.