The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-05-23
The Loves of John Wesley.
a SUSCEPTIBLE FOUNDER OF A GREAT
SECT.

DiO oo uiiiihely dil dCCOunU Is now u1S-
credited, and is totally disclaimed by
Mr.. Tyerman. Certain it is that Wesley
was deeply in love; certain, too, that he
referred the case to his Moravian friends
and advisers, who decided accordingly
that he should proceed no further in the
matter, and he is said to have acquiessed,
saying, "The will of the Lord be DONE"
However this may have been land it
seems doubtful whether he voluntarily
gave up his attachment), the sequel is
equally strange. For we find him few
months after publicly refusing the sac
rament to this same lady (then married
to Mr.. williamson when she present.
ed herself at the Lords table. The
grounds of his refusal have never been
cleared up; but it was largely in conse-
quence of this behavior that he drew on
himself the odium and prosecution which
drove him out of Georgia.
For some years after this he persisted
in his resolution of celibacy---a reselu-
ton which certainly was most advisable
for one who had embraced life of self
denial, labor and homelessness. In 1743,
too, he published his Thoughts on q
Single Life" extolling that state as the
privilege, if not the duty, of all who
were capable of receiving it; and three
years after, in a published hymn, which
is clearly autohiographioal, expressed
himself us follows
81 have sharer of my heart
To rob my Saviour of part
And desecrate the whole;
Only betrothed to Christ am l.
And wait his coming from the sky
To wed my happy soul"
1t was, therefore, with great surprise,
and not without some scandal, that in
l749 his friends heard that he was en-
gagged to Mrs. Grace Murray, young
widow who had nursed him in short
illness, and who was actually accompa-
nying him at that time in his ministerial
travels through the country. This
young woman had been brought up as
a maid-servant, and was person of
small education, though of great at
fractions, and fervent convert to
Methodism. She was person of singu-
larly impulsive temperament, and, with
an utter disregard of delicacy and honor,
in the midst of her engagement to Wes-
ley allowed herself to coquet also with
one of his lay preachers, John Bennett
and for some months the most cxtraor-
dinary alterations went on, her choice
resting sometimes on one, sometimes on
the other of her lovers, with passionate
assertions of her entire devotedness to
each, and this with intervals occasional
ly of few hours only.
Charles Wesley, disgusted and indig-
-, 10 l. H.,
dal. His brother yielded. and met the
lady to say farewell. He kissed her, and
said, "Grace Murray, you have broken
my heart" Aweek or two after she was
married to the inferior suitor. She and
Wesley did not meet again for thirty
nine years. She long outlived her hus-
band; and when in London she came to
hear her son preach in Moorefelds she
met her venerable lover-lover still, ap-
parently, for the interview is described
as very affecting. Henceforth they saw
each other no more, and Wesley never
again mentioned her name. Through
long years Grace continued course of
Christian usefulness, and lived and died
eminently respected. She liesin Chinly
churchyard, in Derbyshire.
Undeterred by his former experience
in l75l Wesley again ventured upon an
engagement which actually resulted in
marriage. Now, too, the lady was a
widow, Mrs. Vazeille; her first hus.
band having been merchant who had
left her small independence. There
was little in her to deserve the attach.
ment of such man, either in character
or intellect. She, too, like Grace Muir.
ray, was of humble birth, and, like her
had been a maid-servant. Having dur.
ing her widcwhood joined herself to the
Methodists, she was naturally pleased
and hattered with the attentions of theil
renowned head. Charles Wesley agair
interposed but this time in vain. i
soon appeared how ill-advised unior
had been contracted; and after a few
years of wretched married life, marked
ON her part by outrageous ill-temper
jealousy, violence and even treaohery
which her husband on his side bore will
the patience of Socrates, the lady on,
day took herself off and lived in stat,
of separation from him till her death
"Non cam reIiQui, non dimisi, non repOcaJ
I did not forsake her, did not dis
HISS ueI, l. Will uOJ IeCtll uer WIS III
husbands apt and pardonable exclama
ton when he found her gone. She take
her place in the foremost rank of the bac
wives of eminent men, worthy to b.
classed with the welded companions O
Socrates, of Albert Durer of Georg
Herbert, or Richard Hooker; she wa
the most vicious vixen of them all.
1t may be imagined, without doin
any injustice to him, that when his let
tiers were stolen, interpolated and forge
by his wife, for the purpose of injurin
his character, the grieving spirit of tn
old prophet may sometimes have SAID
"Grace Murray would not have don
this" At the same time we must, i
justice, say that Wesley cannot lee whol
ly exonerated from blame; for, settin
aside the question whether, after elect
ing to marry, he was not bound to d
more for the comfort of his wife, he Gel
tainly gave occasion to her jealous ten
per by his unwary conduct, and, most {
all, by his unaccountable fondness for
certain Sarah Ryan, quondam maid
servant, like the others who, althoug
she was the wife of three Icing husband
! so won the good opinion and confdenc