Susannah Wesley
Zachariah Taft and women evangelists. Five women to encourage and inspire.
Part 2: by Catherine Coffey
Given the international significance of John and Charles Wesley, it is unsurprising that Taft began his book with a biographical sketch of their mother Susannah Wesley. Not technically a preacher, Susannah’s life and impact certainly helps explain Taft’s choice. Alert to this possible criticism, Taft was quick to defend his choice arguing that ‘ if sinners are awakened and converted to God through their instrumentality…itis a presumptive evidence that the Almighty approves of their labours of love’. And Susanah’s ‘labours of love’ were indeed fruitful and impressive.
Despite the significant duties of a mother of nineteen children, Susannah committed to one hour of devotion morning and evening – this involved prayer and meditation and writing down many of her thoughts and reflections. She also committed to instruct her children in the absence of their father who was working away.
Matters escalated. After some of her children’s friends asked to join in, the numbers she was instructing grew to ‘thirty, and seldom exceeded forty last winter’. It did not stop there. Susannah decided to work through ‘the best and most awakening sermons’ stating that she ‘dare not deny any admittance’. By the time her husband heard about it and wrote to express his concerns there were ‘above two hundred and yet many went away for want of room’. One can only imagine.
We know about this through the letter Susanah wrote on 6 th February 1712 responding to the charges made by her alarmed husband. She noted his objections that ‘[first] it will look peculiar, [second] my sex….and lastly, your being at present in a public station and character’ – in other words, Samuel Wesley was more than a little embarrassed by her. She addressed his points head on.
First, Susannah wrote, he was correct . ‘As to its looking peculiar, I grant it does’ she conceded but went on to argue that everything that is serious or related to evangelism looks odd and he should get over it. We live in a corrupt age, she argued and religion is inherently embarrassing for many ‘as if religion were never to appear out of the closet, and we were to be ashamed of nothing so much as of professing ourselves to be Christians’. Having batted away the charge of being peculiar, Susannah moved onto the second charge of her sex and its restrictions. She acknowledged her belief that Samuel had the ‘superior charge’ of responsibility for their family’s spiritual development. However, when he was not there, she said, ‘[I] look upon every soul…as a talent committed to me under a trust’ and she would answer not to Samuel but to God directly for her stewardship of those souls.
Finally, she addressed his ‘position’ as a public figure. Her indignation at his vanity is palpable. Susanna was affronted that her highly focused devotions could bring Charles into disrepute. ‘Where is the harm of this?’ she asked. How could her endeavours to draw people to church’ possibly reflect badly? It ‘is a mystery’, she argues and ‘if any should be so mad as to do it, I wish you would not regard it’. Samuel’s concern for his own reputation is interesting given that he spent time in a debtors’ prison and was notorious for squandering the family finances. It appears that Susannah’s ministry was not ultimately curtailed by her husband’s squeamishness and she continued her devotions for as long as she had health, eventually dying in 1742.
The sketch is interesting in identifying some very modern feelings and reactions- some people do find public discussion of religion and witness embarrassing. And those caring for children have both the responsibility and opportunity for evangelism at home. However, it was Susanah’s’ willingness to confront her husband’s arguments and hold herself accountable to a higher authority that Taft was most taken with. This argument recurs through his book, not least in the next sketch- that of Dorothy Ripley.