of their first
institution of assemblies for the preaching of the Gospel outside the
walls of churches or any stated places of worship, Susanna Wesley may be
discovered to have led the way.

In the year 1711, during one of the protracted sojournings of Mr. Wesley
in London attending Convocation, and also doing business with his
publishers, his place at the parish church was supplied by a curate
whose ministrations were not particularly efficient, although, as may be
judged from things already told, the people of Epworth were not likely
to be very exacting.

However, a notable reaction of feeling in favour of their minister had
set in since the days of the fire, and the parishioners were, many of
them, quietly attentive to Divine ordinances. Mrs. Wesley, without any
pronounced hostility on her part toward the curate, felt a deep echo of
the popular complaint in her own soul. Divine service at church had been
cut down to one diet in the morning, and hence, to save her children and
servants from temptation of mere idleness, the gifted mother felt
herself called to set up a kind of service at the parsonage. Of this
step she duly apprised her husband, saying: "I cannot but look upon
every soul you leave under my care as a talent committed to me, under a
trust by the great Lord of all the families of heaven and earth; and if
I am unfaithful to Him or to you in neglecting to improve those talents,
how shall I answer unto Him when He shall command me to render an
account of my stewardship?"

As yet, all she had done was reading to, and instructing her own family.
But the news of this spread in Epworth, and a hunger for the Word arose.
The parents, brothers, and sisters of the servants dropped in till the
audience was about thirty or forty. The services consisted of praise,
prayer, and reading of a short sermon. At this time Mrs. Wesley's mind
was greatly stimulated by the accounts she had been perusing of the
devoted labours of two Danish missionaries in India. She felt impelled
"to do somewhat" for Christ.

Conversation with the neighbours who had come to the parsonage-meetings
shaped itself into meetings of inquirers. She now fell back upon the
library, in quest of "more awakening sermons," which were found among
her husband's stock of Puritan authors.

The attendance at the services now increased so as completely to fill
the rooms. At length some three or four persons, headed by the curate,
wrote to the rector in Lond