Model Women

tic W

I.-SUSAN

and of a strong and masculine understanding; an obed

t Sou

'S SP

ilth, and wretchedness, and their husbands are tempted to spend their evenings in the beer-house, the gin palace, or places of public amusement. Were your education different from what it is, we doubt not you would soon prove your fitness for many things from which you are at present debarred; but that would not alter the fact that your nature qualifies you specially for the performance of home duties. Nor is domestic work of small importance. The woman who shall try to do it rightly is attempting something far greater than those achievements which the trump of fame would blazon abroad. The training of young immortals for an everlasting destiny, is

GRA

into mature life. Susanna was the youngest. She was born in Spital Yard, near Bishopsgate Street, on the 20th January, 1669. Her father, at no small cost of feeling, and at a sacrifice of ￡700 a year, refused to declare his unfeigned assent to all that was contained in the Book of Common Prayer. His nonconformity caused him many outwa

ohn, a burning

, actions, all a

t we believe to be a mistake. But if she was not a classical scholar, she had a respectable knowledge of French; prosecuted as one of her chiefest studies, the noble literature and tongue of Britain; and wrote with marvellous neatness and grammatical accuracy. While careful to stren

, and ultimately brought forth fruit. As she advanced in years, she increased in spirituality. Hear her own words:-"I will tell you what rule I observed in the same case when I was young and too much addicted

pt in that controversy, and he came to her rescue. Her theological views became thoroughly established, and her writings contain admirable defences of the Holy Trinity, the Godhead and atonement of the Lord Jesus, and the Divine personality and work of the Eternal Spirit. Discussions on Church government ran high. Conformity and nonconformity were pitted against each other, and championed by the ablest of

n the dowry of nonconforming virtues;" and over all, as her brightest adorn

nay, but full

t a dearer b

incts, breath

rted and intelligent Samuel Wesley. Probably late in 1689, or early in 1690, accompanied by "the virgins, her companions," she went forth out of Spital Y

One would almost imagine that devouring fire was the rector of Epworth's adverse element. Scarcely had he and his noble wife taken possession of the new home, when a third of the building was burnt to the ground. Within twelve months after, the entire growth of flax, intended to satisfy hungry creditors, was consumed in the field; and in 1709 the rectory was utterly destroyed by fire. If the number and bitterness of a man's foes be any gauge of his real influence, then the Rector of Epworth must have been the greatest power in the isle. The consequences of carrying out his sincere convictions regarding things secular and sacred were terrible. The conflagration, involving all but the t

ent from their fathers, had grown up around him, and in the midst of their tenderest sympathy he passed the quiet evening of life. Memorable sentences were ever and anon dropping from his ready pen, indicating that he was looking for the coming crisis. On the 25th o

theless, felt deeply her lone and lorn situation. Epworth had been no paradise of unmixed delight to her. The serpent had often lurked among its flowers; poverty, like an armed man, had frequently

s she dropped, but

he remainder of her days. Fifty years before, in the bloom of early womanhood, she had left the mighty metropolis, to share in the joys and sorrows of a minister's wife. Then, her father, mother, sisters, and brothers were all alive; now, all were numbered with the dead. The mother of the Wesleys herself was waiting, as in the land of Beulah, for the call, "Come ye up hither." Her closing hours afforded ample evidence of a triumphant death. On the 23rd July, 1742, the founder of Methodism wrote in his journal-"Her look was

y life," says her biographer, "and maintaining for many years a devout and earnest discipleship in the Established Church, which, in theory she never renounces, in the two last years of her life she becomes a practical nonconformist, in attending the ministry and services of her sons in a separate and unconsecrated 'conventicle.' The two ends of her earthly life, separated by so wide an interval, in a certain sense embrace and kiss

BLE

est of his property were in safe keeping. After the disastrous fire, in regard to everything save their eight children, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley were about as poor as Adam and Eve when they first set up housekeeping. Thirteen years after that sad event, a wealthy relative was "strangely scandalised at the poverty of the furniture, and much more so at the meanness of the children's habit." The rector's incarceration for a paltry debt of less than ￡30, before his friends could come to his rescue, was the heaviest trial of the heroic Mrs. Wesley. What little jewellery she had, including her marriage ring, she sent for his relief; but God pro

nd, and ministers of other Churches, in his command of real comfort and substantial independence. The former is respectable in moleskin, but the latter must have broad-cloth. This state of matters is intolerable, grossly unjust, and fearfully oppressive-a wrong done not to pastors only, but to society at large; whose interest

nt to see a marriage noble in every way, you must go to the rectory at Epworth where this couple lived. Their entire married life is one of the sweetest, tenderest, and noblest on record. Mrs. Wesley was always ready to stand by the rector. "Old as I am," she writes, "since I have taken my husband 'for bettor for worse,' I'll take my residence with him. Where he lives, will I live; where he dies, will I die; and there will we be buried. God do so to me,

OD M

French atheist if it had not been for one recollection, and that was, the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause me on my knees to say, 'Our Father, who art in heaven.'" Providence blessed Mrs. Wesley with a large family. She was the mother of nineteen children,

he mother m

she lost

then for gri

woe the wat

sorrows, all

yment of

d grow up from childhood to maturity without their domestic disquietudes, would be beyond the range of probability. There were trials deep and heavy, but as far as we can judge, the family of the Epworth parsonage are now collected in the many-mansioned house above. A mother's influence is

EDUCA

t difficult problems of education is, to form a child to obedience without making it servile. The will is the key of the active being, and in a great measure the key of the receptive too. Along with the inclinations, its purveyors and assessors, it must be the earliest subject of discipline. Without subjecting the will you can do nothing. On this subject we believe the views of Mrs. Wesley to be equally just and propound-to lie at the very foundation of the philosophy of education. "In order to form the minds of children," she writes, "the first thing to be done is, to conquer their will, and bring them to an obedient temper. To inform the understanding is a work of time, and must with children proceed by slow degrees, as they are able to bear it. But the subjecting of the will is a thing that must be done at once, and the sooner the better. For by neglecting timely correction, they contract a stubbornness and obstinacy which are hardl

N TO ME

rded as unjustifiable irregularities, and published an eloquent defence of those religious societies which existed at the time. The religious pedigree, so evident in the paternal ancestry, was no less observable in the mother of the founder of Methodism. Maternal influence exerted over John Wesley and his brothers an all but sovereign control. His mental perplexities, his religious doubts and emotions were all submitted to the judgment and decision of his mother. When Thomas Maxfield began to preach, Wesley hurried to London to stop him. The opinion of his mother was unmistakable, and led to important consequences. "John, you know what my sentiments have been. You cannot suspect me of favouring readily anything of this kind. But take care what you do with respect to that young man; for he is as surely called of God to pre

R OF MRS

awfulness of enjoyment another; and even love forms the theme of one admirable letter, which Dr. Adam Clarke says, "would be a gem even in the best written treatise on the powers and passions of the human m

lways argues a base and cowardly temper to whisper secretly what you dare not speak to a man's face. Therefore be careful to avoid all evil-speaking, and be ever sure to obey that command of our Saviour in this case as well as others,-'Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even

English lady, but not strikingly beautiful. Mr. Kirk, her biographer informs us that there are two portraits of Mrs. Wesley, just now claiming to be genuine: the one taken in early l

II.-ELIZ

for domestic duties, she added literary culture

a Pri

'S MI

lish by moving in the circle which God and nature have appointed them. We look forward to the time, not perhaps so remote, when women shall cease to be employed in those works-rough, hard, toilsome, exhausting works-in which many are now engaged. The time will come, when capital and labour shall have become so reconciled one to another as that men may do the work of men, and women may be spared that work in order that they may the more fully preside over the work of the household. Then there will be more refinement of manner, more enjoyment of soul, more enlargement of the intellect, and more cultivation of the heart. If circumstances

duties be your t

rld its strivin

e long run far outwei

beauty, wea

endear a

e it on

worth, 'ti

h cheerful p

e faithful

tear made

GRA

our, lamented by many to whom he had been a blessing; and the younger at present occupies one of the most important positions of the Wesleyan Church in Australia. From infancy Eliza Hessel was the subject of the strivings of the Spirit. We have abundance of facts, to enable us to form a sufficiently accurate estimate of the influences operating upon her early years, and the peculiarities of her mental and moral nature. At this period she might have often been seen wandering alone wrapt in deep thought. What are the stars? How could the Almighty always have existed? Why was sin permitted to enter into the wor

rs' boarding-school at Leeds, in January, 1845. That lady relates this portion of Eliza's school-days thus:-"I remember distinctly the morning she was introduced into the school-room. Little did I then think what an influence the new comer would acquire over my own mind and heart. She was shy and reserved at first, but susceptible of any advance towards friendliness, and eager to reciprocate the least kindness. It was not long before her position amongst us became clearly defined. Being one of the tallest girls, a degree of freedom was at once awarded her, but her mind soon asserted a superior claim. She was a most earnest and successful student; and it became a privilege to be admitted into her little coterie of inquirers after knowledge. At her suggestion, three or four of us rose at five o'clock every morning, and met in the library to read. The books chosen were generally su

eces betrayed their authorship. In a letter to Miss Rinders, she says, "I will tell you, dear Sarah, what were my reflections the first day I was at school. In the evening I sat down, and asked my

one only seven months old, and the other but two years, were now committed to the trust of Miss Hessel. Mr. Brumwell resided at Burton-on-Trent, and thither, early in 1846, she repaired. Though she did not hide her repugnance to domestic duties, the dawnings of "a horror of undomesticated literary women" were already felt, and she determined to

47 the family left Catterton and removed to Boston Spa. Regret was naturally

ion of her brother. He had been three years in the ministry, was now located in the Isle of Wight, and before the end of November his widowed mother and eldest sister were comfortably settled at Percy Cottage, Ventnor. Having visited Carisbrook Castle, the church of

which they had been trained, they vigorously advocated the impartially benignant and strictly universal love of the Father, atonement of the Son, and influence of the Spirit. In the spring of 1850, a number of these zealous m

ted the bridal pair. How greatly she enjoyed that sojournment two brief sentences attest. They were written on September 13th, a few days before she left. "I have much to tell you o

tastes, and lively poetical sensibility, her mental powers were seldom at rest. We find her holding communion with Martin's celebrated pictures, "The Last Judgment," "The Plains of Heaven," and "The Great Day of Wrath," admiring the early spring flowers, and the glowing tints of the autumnal trees. Her poetical compositions were numerous, some of them of considerable merit, and her reading was multifar

very much reduced, my appetite poor, and my cough no better. I feel now that I hold life by a very slender tenure." Early in January, 1858, she said, "All my wishes are now fulfilled. I wished to live over the new year's tea-meeting, because my death would have cast a gloom over the rejoicings. I desire also to receive one more letter from William. The Australian mail has arrived, and here is my brother's let

onths before. "I have chosen my grave there. Our family vault is in the churchyard, but I have a wish to be buried among my own people-the people with whom I have wo

t waters now t

happy one! thy

gh sea'

arnings of thy

peace is won, th

t gone

PURPOSE

that while brutes are impelled by instinct to the course proper to their realm and nature, she was endowed with rationality, that she might act upon choice, and, though she might often not have it in her power to choose the pla

daily cour

hallow a

still, of co

rovide for

round, the

h all we ou

ny ourselv

s daily ne

is better than nothing, or, what is still worse, retrograding." In the prime of womanhood, we find her, in every pursuit, seeking to serve and honour God. To a friend in Leeds she writes:-"I must combine expansiveness of view with concentration of purpose, in order to that beautiful harmony of character so desirable in a woman. It is true that for a man to excel in anything, for all the purposes of life, he must

LLENT D

that duty brings with it innumerable blessings; its nonperformance has been the first step in the downward course of untold thousands, and will be, we fear, of thousands more. Her strong filial affection is exhibited in the following sentences:-"There is one who demands all my sympathy and affection; who as a wife and a mother, has discharged the important duties of her station in a manner which evinced the strength of her conjugal and maternal affection, and whose peculiarly trying circumstances gave an opportunity for the full development of that self-devoted disinterested, Christian heroism, which her children will remember with gratitude, when her

ING S

this is the anniversary of dear John's birthday. He has been nearly seventeen years in heaven. Seventeen years of uninterrupted progression in knowledge, in holiness, in bliss, with a mind unfettered in its researches and a soul unencumbered by infirmity or sin in its aspirations! How incomparably nobler he must be now than when he first entered his heavenly mansion! I did not tell you how of late years the idea of him has strangely interwoven itself with my inner being." How faithful generally is a sister's love. Place her by the side of the sick couch, let her have to count over the long dull hours of night, and wait, alone and sleepless, the struggle of the grey dawn into the chamber of suffer

LD MANA

ernly wife." About six years afterwards, she says to a friend: "I have just been reading an article in a periodical which has amused me greatly. It is on 'Female Authors.' Its purport is that an unmarried woman, once fairly convicted of literature, must never expect to sign her marriage-contract, but may make up her mind to solitariness in the world she presumes to create for herself. Miss Landon is the only scribe recognised 'who was ever invited to change the name she had made famous.' All married literary women, it is asserted, 'wore orange-blossom, before they assumed the bay-leaf.' It is enough to frighten one if matrimony were the great end of our existence. But as I believe that a li

R OF MIS

n was morbid. Rapid growth contributed to physical debility; and at one period she suffered a good deal from tic-douloureux. When she became a woman, she was well-pro

telligent woman, with large reflective powers. A refined ideality was early developed, and carefully cultivated by the thorough mastering of our best literature, and especially of our best poetry. In consequ

into the "naughty corner." Eliza, knowing her sister's innocence, rose from her seat, marched boldly forth, brought away the victim, and defiantly exclaimed, "My sister shall not be put into the corner!" However, unmagisterial acquiescence was deemed prudent. To fortitude she added great love of humanity. A