Last words of the faithful
Susanna Wesley
Died 23 July 1742 · London, aged 73
Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, died in London on 23 July 1742. Her son John was present and recorded in his Journal that her last request was that the children should sing a psalm of praise to God as soon as she was released.
The last words
The story behind them
She had nineteen children and buried nine of them. She taught the survivors herself, six hours a day, in a rectory that burned down with a child still inside it. Her husband was frequently absent, frequently in debt, and once left her for months over a political disagreement about the king. None of that is the reason she is remembered, and all of it is the context for why she is.
Two of those children, John and Charles, would go on to shape the English speaking church more than almost anyone of their century: one preaching, one writing the hymns. Both of them credited the woman who had made them read.
Not a blessing on her children. An instruction to them.
John was at her bedside in July 1742 and wrote it in his Journal. Her last request was not a farewell and not a blessing. It was a command about what they were to do in the first minutes after she died: children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God. His Journal records that they gathered round the bed and did exactly that. A woman who had spent forty years telling her children what to do spent her last breath telling them one more time, and what she told them to do was sing.
What they died for, you can meet
None of these people died for an idea. They died holding onto a Person, convinced that death was not the end because he had already walked out of a tomb. The Living Bread is a quiet place to meet that same Jesus, read the Gospels for yourself, and ask your honest questions.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- What were Susanna Wesley's last words?
- Her son John Wesley recorded in his Journal that she said, 'Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.' The family did so around her bed.
- Who was Susanna Wesley?
- Susanna Wesley was the mother of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and Charles Wesley, the hymn writer. She bore nineteen children, nine of whom died, and educated the survivors herself. She died on 23 July 1742.
- How do we know what she said?
- From the Journal of John Wesley, her own son, who was present at her death.
