Wesley who counseled John to ponder well what he did before
he forbade laymen to address congregations; and her arguments on this
point were so conclusive that they led him to alter his mind and make
use of them as an agency for good in the Church, though previously he
had considered such a proceeding a dangerous innovation.
During the life-time of her husband, it was her custom, in his absence,
to allow those who chose to come to assemble in a room of the old
rectory at Epworth, on Sunday, and either read them a sermon herself or
have one of the elder children do it. Frequently, the office of reader
devolved upon her daughter Emily.
No matter into what department of her life you inquire, she is still
found the same active, energetic, and strong-minded woman. Nothing weak
or puerile is found in her character. From girlhood to maturity, from
maturity to gray hairs, she pursues the same steady, uniform course. Her
life is consistent with the principles which she had laid down for her
own self-government, and which she believed were deduced from the Word
of God.
At seventy-two years of age, she closed a long career of usefulness,
dying, as the Christian might be expected to die, in the triumphs of
faith. Five of her daughters, and her son John, were permitted to stand
at her bedside and witness her peaceful end, and to comply with a
request made shortly before she died, that, as soon as the last struggle
was ended, they should unite in singing a psalm of praise for her
release.
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