Customer Reviews

Susanna Wesley : Servant of God

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This book is a favorite of mine, as well as my husband's. We found it to be one of the most encouraging and inspiring books we'd ever read. It is in our top 10 favorites....can't recommend it highly enough...if I could have given it 10 stars, I would have. Is definitely a book you do not want to miss reading...it will stay with you long after you've read the last page. Susanna's faith and Godly motherhood is an inspiration for all!

The book suffers from being written for children in novel form by an American. So we read ridiculous things like, "the greater part of Susanna's mind was working on the placement of marquis in the mysterious hierarchy of British nobility" - mysterious, I dare say, only to American readers: presumably an educated Englishwoman would know without thinking about it.

But it sure is a fascinating story. Susanna, (the mother, of course, of Charles and John), was intelligent, educated, pious, disciplined, courageous, devout, and strong - but unconverted until very late in life.

At least, that's what Charles thought, when after her death he wrote that she
Mourn'd a long night of griefs and fears,
A legal night of seventy years.
The Father then revealed his Son;
Him in the broken bread made known;
She knew and felt her sins forgiven,
And found the earnest of her heaven.

Was she unconverted all those years, however, or did she just lack assurance of salvation? It would seem hard to know for sure. But perhaps the whole idea of Susanna Wesley as a godly home-schooling mother needs to be rethought...