The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1896-02-27
JOHN wgsLEYs LOVE AFFAIRS.
All Of Them Wore Unfortunate and Ono
Filled Him With Lasting Regret

All Of Them Wore Unfortunate and Ono
Filled Him With Lasting Regret.
The story Of the great Wesley's love
affairs, given by Luke Tyerman IN his
Life and Times of John Wesley"
forms q strange and most remarkable
series of episodes in his life. The first
occurrence was during his mission to
Georgia, where he formed deep at
tachment to a Miss Sophia Hopkey,
niece of the chief magistrate OF the
colony. The earlier biographies OF
Wesley represent the affairs as involv-
ing q conspiracy on the part OF the
young lady and her friends against the
reputation of the youthful ascetlc.
But so unlikely an account Is now dis
credited, and is totally disclaimcd by
Mr.. Tyermau. Certain it is that
Wesley was deeply in love; certain,
Moravian friends and advisors, who
decided accordingly that he should
proceed no further in the matter, and
he is said to have acquiseced, saying
"The will of the Lord be DONE" How
ever this may have been (and it seems
doubtful whether he voluntarily gave
up his attachmcntl the sequel is
equally strange. For we find him
few months after publicly refusing the
sacrament to this same lady (thon
married to Mr.. Williams) when she
presented herself at the Lords table.
The grounds of his refusal have never
been cleared up; but it was largely in
consequence of his behavior that he
drow on himself the odium and per-
secution which drove him out Of
Georgia.
For some years after this he persist
ed in his resolution OF celibacy-a
resolution which certainly was most
advisable-for one who had embraced
life of self denial, labor and home
lessness. In l742, too, he published
his "Thoughts on Single Life" ex-
telling that state as the privilege If
of receiving it and three years aftor,
in a published hymn, which is clearly
autobiographical, expressed himself as
follows !:
81 have no sharer in my heart,
TO rob my Savior 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 sur
prise, and not without some scandal,
that in l749 his friends heard that he
was engaged to Mrs. Grace Murray,
q young widow, who had nursed him
in a short illness, and who was actually
accompanying him at that time in his
ministerial travels through the coun-
try. This young woman had been
brought up as maid servant, and was
aperson of small education, though of
great attractions, and a fervant con-
vert to Methodism. She was a person
Of singularly impulsiye temperament,
n ia n iorn <,fl Il al
and honor in the midst Of her engage
mcnt to Wesley allowed herself to CO.
quet also with one OF his lay preachers,
John Bennett. and for some months
the most extraordinary alternations
went on, her choice resting sometimes
on one, sometimes on the other Of her
lovers with passionate assertions of
her entire devotedncss to each, and
this with intervals occasionally OF a
few hours only.
Charles Wesley, disgusted and in
dignant, strove to put an end to the
scandal. His brother yielded and met
the''lady to say farewell. He kissed
her and said "Grace Murray, you have
broken my heart" a week or two
after she was married to the inferior
suitor. She and Wesley did not meet
again for thirty-ninc years. She long
outlivcd her husband, and when in
London she came to hear her son preach
in Moorficlds, she met her venerable
lovcr-lovcr still apparently, for the in
terv;cw is described as very affecting.
Henccforth they saw each other no
more, and Wesley never again men
toned her name. Through long years
Grace continued Il course of Christian |
usefulness, and lived and died eminent
ly respected. She lies in Chinly Church |
yard in Derbyshire.
Undeterrcd by his former expert
ences, in l75l Wesley again ventured |
upon an engagement which actually |
resulted in marriage. Now, too, the |
lady was u widow, a Mrs. Vazille, her
first husband having been q merchant,
who had left her small Independence.
There was little in her toudeserve the
attachment Of such O man, either in
character or intellect. She, too, like
Grace Murray, was OF humble birth,
and, like her, had been maid servant
Having during her widowhOod joined
herself to the Methodists, she was
naturally pleased and hattered with
the attentions'of their renowned head.
Chas. Wesley again interposed, but
this time in vain. 1t soon appeared
how ill-advised D union had been con-
tracted, and after few years of
wretched married life, marked on her
part by outrageous ill-temper, jealousy,
violence, and even treachery, which
her husband on his side bore with the
patience of Socrates, the lady one
day took herself off and lived in state
of separation from him till her death.
Mon cam reliqui, non dimisi, non
,revocal i did not forsake her, did
not dismiss her, l will not recall her."
was the husbands apt and pardOnable
exclamation whom he found her gone
She takes her place in the foremost
rank of the bad wives OF eminent men,
worthy to be classed with the welded
companions OF Socrates, Of Albert
Durer, OF George Herbert, Of Richard
Hooder, she was the most vicious vixen
OF them all.
1t may be imagined, without doing
any injustice to him, that when his
letters were stolen, interpolated, and
forged by his wife, for the purpose of
injuring his character, the grieving
spirit Of the Old prophet may some
times have said, "Grace Murray would
not have done this" At the same
time we must. in iustice. aaY that