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JANUARY

20, 1669 --England. Susannah Annesley is born the twenty-fifth child of Dr. Samuel Annesley. Her father is a non-conformist, but in her thirteenth year, Susannah will unite with the Church of England. In 1689, she will marry Mr. Samuel Wesley and will bear him nineteen children, among whom will be John and Charles. Nine of her children will die in their infancy and early childhood. She will rear the other ten for the glory of God, and this is how she did it:
      “In order to form the minds of children, the first thing to be done is to conquer the will and bring it to an obedient temper. To inform the understanding is a work of time ... but the subjugating the will is a thing which must be done at once and the sooner the better . . .. I insist upon conquering the will of children early because this is the only strong and rational foundation of a religious education . . .. When this is thoroughly done, then a child is capeable of being governed by the reason and piety of his parents . . .. As self-will is the root of all sin and misery, so whatever cherishes this in children insures their after wretchedness and irreligion.
     “The one grand impediment to our temporal and eternal happiness (is) this self-will; therefore no indulgence of it can be trivial, no denial unprofitable . . .. The parent who studies to subdue in his child works together with God . . . the parent who indulges it does the Devil’s work, makes religion impracticable, salvation unattainable, and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body, forever.

 
 

     “By neglecting timely correction, children will contract a stubbornness and obstinacy which are hardly ever after conquered, and never without using such severity as would be as painful to me as to the child . . .. Whenever a child is corrected, he must be conquered, and this will be no hard matter to do if it be not grown headstrong by too much indulgence.”
     Susannah Wesley started them reading by turning to Genesis 1:1. They were taught to spell the verse syllable by syllable, then word by word. They read it over and over before progressing to the next verse.
     She started a school for her family right in her home. School was never interrupted even by visitors, business, or even accidents in the family. Hymns opened and closed each teaching session. Perfect order was maintained. Rising and leaving the room was pardonable only for necessities. Within three months, her children were reputed to be better readers than most women are in their lifetime.
     Each evening following school, the children went two by two, the eldest went with the youngest who could speak. In their private rooms they read a chapter in the New Testament along with a Psalm. In the morning, the children followed the same fashion but read a chapter in the Old Testament and a Psalm.
     Private prayers were observed before breakfast or before they came into the presence of the family.
     She was successful because she was Impartial. She was no Rebekah having a favorite Jacob. But she was equally successful because she was careful to reach them before they knew how to talk. “Some parents talk of beginning the education of their children,” wrote Christopher Anderson. “The moment they were capeable of forming an idea, their education was already begun—the education of circumstances ...insensible education, which like insensible perspiration is of more constant and powerful effect, and of far more consequence to the habit than that which is direct and apparent. This education goes on at every instant of time; it goes on like time itself: you can neither stop it nor turn its course. ...Here then is one school from which there are no truants, and in which there are no holidays.”

 

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