The Grange advance., 1874-09-09
,3es 1850. Z $50
one

Wesley's sdenominational asylums.
She had been married to three men sue
cessively, who IN turn abused and de-
serted her. Her station in life was low,
her education limited, and at times the
obligations of duty lay loosely upon
her. Under the preaching of the Meth
odists she became convert and won
the great preachers confidence. Yves.
lev was undoubtedly imprudent to con-
fide his domestic troubles to her as he
did, but there is not the least atom of
evidence Of any other indiscretion on
his part.
In February, l756, Wesley wrote to
Sarah Ryan: "Your last letter was
seasonable indeed. l was growing faint
in mind. The being continually watch
ed over for evil; the having every word
spoke, every action 1 did, small and
great, watched with no friendly eve !;
the having a thousand little tart, un-
kind reflections, in return for the kind
est words I could advise
Like drops of eating water on the marble.
AT length have worn my sinking spirits
down.
''Yet I could not say, Take thy pla-
que away from me- but only. Let me
be purified, not consumed .
In another letter to Sarah Ryan he
writes as follows:
January q, 1883.
My Dear Sister: Last Friday, after
many severe words, my wife left me,
vowing she would see me no m>re.
Wesley and his wife, however, were
again united, but were far from being
happy. So things proceeded till l77l.
''On one occasion she seized his letters
and other papers and put them into the
hands of such as she knew to be his
enemies, that they might be printed as
presumptive proofs Of illicit connec.
tions.' She even interpolated letters
which she had intercepted, so as to
make them bear a bad construction,
and then read them to different persons
in private for the purpose of defaming
him. In one or two instances she pub
lished interpolated or forged letters in
the public prints. She accused Charles
Wesley Of idlcness, and declared that
for years his dearest Sally had been
John Wesley's mistress. Charles
danced with rage at this imputation
cast upon his wife; but his Sally calm
ly smiled and said, ssWho will believe
my sister now?" frequently she would
drive hundred miles t." see who was
in the carriage with her husband on
entering town. Sometimes her pas
sions hurried her into outrage and inde-
cency. More than once she laid vio-
lent hands upon his person
and tore his hair. "Jack,'' said
John Hampson, senior, Zone Of
Wesley's biographers), to his son, Il
was once on the point of committing
murder. Once, wnen I was in the
north of Ireland, went into a room
and found Mrs. Wesley foaming with
fury. Her husband was on the floor.
where she had been trailing him by the
hair of his head; and she herself was
still holding in her hand venerable
locks which she had plucked up hy the
roots. l felt," continued the gigantic
Hampson, who was not one Of W esley's
warmest friends, Il felt as though l
could have knocked the soul out of
her,
In volume 3, pp. 232, 233, 234, it is
recorded that the Gospel Magazine, edi-
ted by the famous Toplady, reviewed
an extraordinary and infamous bur-
lesque pamphlet on Wesley, and COM
mended it as "a delicate satire on Wes-
ley," and hoped that ''the cream Of tar
tar, so ably administered b, the anony-
nous physician, would prove q sweet
mel Of the patients crudities, and con-.
duce to carry off some Of his self.sufi.
ciency." Wesley, however, had been
so severely salted and peppered of
late years. that the considerable editor
of the Gospel Magazine bencvolently
intimates that he shall on that account
refrain from adding to the pepper and
salt seasoning, which ''must often have
made Wesley smart and vince like an
eel dispossessed Of its skin.''
This was bad enough, but there were
other things even worse. Wesley's
wife Originally not too respectable
servant girl), stole number of Wes-
ley's letters, and interpolated words
and misinterpreted spiritual expires.
sions, so as to make the letters bear a
bad construction. She read them to
an elect party Of Calvinists, and agreed
to send them to the Morning Post for
publication. Two masked assassins,
who assumed the not inappropriate
names Of " Scorpion " and :" Snapdrag-
on" previously assailed him in the
London newspapers, protesting to
ground their charges against MIN upon
his own private papers, which the wo-
man, who was legally his wife, had put
into their hands. A more infamous
episode does not occnr in Wcsley's his
tory. The charges were cruel insinu.
ations, founded upon interpolated let.
ters, stolen by faithless woman, who,
in order to defame husband of whom