Mrs. Vazeille. 103 He certainly did not possess the conjugal virtues. He had no taste for the tranquillity of domestic retirement: while his situation, as an itinerant, left him little leisure for those attentions which are absolutely necessary to the comfort of married life."1 Dr. Whitehead writes: "Mr. Wesley's constant habit of travelling, the number of persons who came to visit him wherever he was, and his extensive correspondence, were circumstances unfavourable to that social intercourse, mutual openness and confidence, which form the basis of happiness in the married state. These circumstances, indeed, would not have been so very unfavourable, had he married a woman who could have entered into his views, and have accommodated herself to his situation. But this was not the case. Had he searched the whole kingdom, he would hardly have found a woman more unsuitable in these respects, than she whom he married." 2 From the first, Charles Wesley felt the strongest aversion to his brother's marriage. Why? Mr. Jackson suggests, that this could not proceed from any feeling of personal or family dislike to Mrs. Vazeille (which we somewhat doubt); nor from any repugnance to the marriage state, for he himself was eminently happy in that relation; but because he believed that, by this means, Wesley's labours would be confined within the same comparatively narrow circle as his own, and, as a consequence, many of the Methodist societies, for want of oversight, would become Independent churches; a wide separation from the national establishment would ensue, and the kingdom be deprived of that extensive reformation which the brothers had hoped by God's blessing to effect. Probably there is some truth in this; but we still incline to the opinion, that Charles Wesley's dislike to the marriage was, at least, partly owing to a disapprobation of his brother's choice. In 1750, Charles took her on a fortnight's visit to his wife's relations at Ludlow; and, on her return to London, he and his Sally, for eight or nine days, were guests of Mrs. Vazeille herself. Charles was a keen discerner of、 1 Hampson's Life of Wesley, vol. ii., p. 124. 1751 Age 48 1751 personal character,-perhaps much more than his brother Age 48 was, and must have seen some of the faults which afterwards became more apparent, and to which, at subsequent periods, he so frequently refers. At all events, on February 2, a fortnight before the marriage, he writes as follows: "My brother told me he was resolved to marry. I was thunderstruck, and could only answer, he had given me the first blow, and his marriage would come like the coup de grace. Trusty Ned Perronet followed, and told me, the person was Mrs. Vazeille! one of whom I had never had the least suspicion. I refused his company to the chapel, and retired to mourn with my faithful Sally. I groaned all the day, and several following ones, under my own and the people's burdens. I could eat no pleasant food, nor preach, nor rest, either by night or by day." On the same day, Wesley himself wrote: "Having received a full answer from Mr. Perronet, I was clearly convinced, that I ought to marry. For many years, I remained single, because I believed I could be more useful in a single than in a married state. And I praise God, who enabled me so to do. I now as fully believed that, in my present circumstances, I might be more useful in a married state." This is a curious entry. Can it be true that, up to this day, Wesley had not proposed marriage to Mrs. Vazeille? that Vincent Perronet's letter brought him to a decision? that he acquainted his brother as soon as he had made up his mind? and that all the courtship preceding his marriage was really of not more than fifteen or sixteen days' continuance? If so, no wonder that this, like most hasty marriages, was so unfortunate. This brief period was a curious episode in Wesley's history. Four days after he told his brother that he "was resolved to marry," he strangely enough "met the single men" of the London society, "and showed them on how many accounts it was good for those who had received that gift from God, to remain 'single for the kingdom of heaven's sake;' unless where a particular case might be an exception to the general rule." His intention was to set out five days after this, on his journey to the north; but, on the day before he purposed 1751 starting, his feet slipped on the ice, in crossing London Bridge, and he fell with great force, the bone of his ankle lighting on Age 48 a stone, and one of his legs being severely sprained. A surgeon bound up the leg; and, with great difficulty, he proceeded to Seven Dials, where he preached. He attempted to preach again, at the Foundery, at night; but his sprain became so painful, that he was obliged to relinquish his intention; and, at once, removed to Threadneedle Street, where Mrs. Vazeille resided; and here he spent the seven days next ensuing, "partly," he says, "in prayer, reading, and conversation, and partly in writing a Hebrew grammar, and Lessons for Children." During this brief period of enforced retirement, when he had purposed to be far on his way to the north of England, the tete-a-tete unexpectedly issued in a marriage. The accident occurred on Sunday, February 10; on the Sunday following, he was "carried to the Foundery, and preached kneeling," not being yet able to stand; and, on the next day, or, at most, the day after that, cripple though he was, he succeeded in leading Mrs. Vazeille, a widow, seven years younger than himself, to the hymencal altar, and was married. On the Monday (February 18) he was still unable to set his foot to the ground. On the Tuesday evening, and on the Wednesday morning, he preached kneeling. This was an odd beginning,-the bridegroom crippled, and, instead of making a wedding tour, preaching on his knees in London chapels. A fortnight after his marriage, being, as he says, "tolerably able to ride, though not to walk," he set out for Bristol, leaving his newly married wife behind him. Here he held a five days' conference with his preachers, who had assembled from various parts, and says: "My spirit was much bowed down among them, fearing some of them were perverted from the simplicity of the gospel; but the more we conversed, the more brotherly love increased. I expected to have heard many objections to our first doctrines; but none appeared to have any: we seemed to be all of one mind, as well as one heart. I mentioned whatever I thought was amiss, or wanting, in any of our brethren. It was received in a right spirit, with much love, and serious earnest attention; and, I trust, not one went from the conference discontented, but rather, blessing God for the consolation." 1751 The conference being ended, he returned to London on Age 48 March the 21st, and, six days afterwards, set out for Scotland, and inserted in his journal what, perhaps, was a sly hit at his brother Charles: "I cannot understand how a Methodist preacher can answer it to God, to preach one sermon, or travel one day less, in a married than in a single state. this respect surely, 'it remaineth, that they who have wives be as though they had done."" Was there ever a marriage like John Wesley's? It was one of the greatest blunders he ever made. A man who attains to the age of forty-eight, without marrying, ought to remain a bachelor for life, inasmuch as he has, almost of necessity, formed habits, and has acquired angularities and excrescences, which will never harmonize with the relationships and duties of the married state. Besides, if there ever was a man whose mission was so great and so peculiar as to render it inexpedient for him to become a benedict, Wesley was such a man. His marriage was ill advised as well as ill assorted. On both sides, it was, to a culpable extent, hasty, and was contracted without proper and sufficient thought. Young people entering into hurried marriages deserve and incur censure; and if so, what shall be said of Wesley and his wife? They married in haste, and had leisure to repent. Their act was, in a high degree, an act of folly; and, properly enough, to the end of life, both of them were made to suffer a serious penalty. It is far from pleasant to pursue the subject; but perhaps it is needful. In a world of danger like this, we must look at beacons as well as beauties. Let us then, as far as is possible, see the results of this hasty and ill judged marriage, and then have done with it. One necessary consequence was the resignation of Wesley's fellowship, which he sent, on the 1st of June, to the following effect:-"I, John Wesley, fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, do hereby spontaneously and freely resign whatever rights I possess in the aforesaid society, to the rector and fellows of the same wishing to all and each of them perpetual peace and every species of felicity in Christ." Another result was a painful quarrel with his brother. It is true, this was not of long continuance; for, on March 22, they met together, and had free and full explanations, and Wesley's Wife, and Brother. 107 were reconciled to each other. So they said, and yet it is a What concerning Wesley himself? His wife's money soon. became a trouble; and at no time was a benefit. Within two months after his unhappy marriage, we find him writing to his friend Blackwell, asking him to render his assistance in settling her affairs; and adding: "She has many trials, but not one more than God knows to be profitable to her. I 1751 Age 48 |