y and hardship she had shared with him
so long.

But we do not hear so much about her maladies us of the many signs of
triumph over them, till by the month of July, 1742, the vital power is
ebbing low, and her daughters gather round her. The sons were out in the
field. Charles had bent over her with filial attentions, till,
concluding in his own mind that her strength would hold out for a few
days, he departed to his work, hoping soon to return.

John Wesley was at Bristol on Sunday evening the 18th of July, and had
just ended preaching to a large congregation, when the message came that
his mother was apparently near death.

He rode off immediately for London, which he reached on the 20th, and,
as he says in his Journal, "I found my mother on the borders of
eternity; but she has no doubt or fear, nor any desire but, as soon as
God should call her, to depart and be with Christ." She enjoyed a quiet
sleep on the evening of the 22nd, and awoke in the morning in a joyful
frame of mind. Her children heard her say, "My dear Saviour, art Thou
come to help me in my extremity at last?"

Utterances of praise at intervals filled the hours that remained, At
four o'clock in the afternoon her son had left her for a little, that he
might snatch some hasty refreshment in the adjoining room, when he was
called back again to offer the commendatory prayer. "She opened her eyes
wide and fixed them upward for a moment. Then the lids dropped, and the
soul was set at liberty, without one struggle or groan or sigh, on the
23rd of July, 1742, aged seventy-three. We stood round the bed and
fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she lost her speech,
'Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.'"

There was a vast crowd at the funeral, at Bunhill Fields, on the 1st of
August. John Wesley's voice faltered as he pronounced the words, "The
soul of our dear mother here departed"--and the grief of the multitude
broke out afresh. A hymn was sung, and he then stood forth and preached
one of the most moving sermons that ever came from his lips, turning not
upon the pathos of the funeral, but upon the Bible picture of the last
judgment. Of the occasion he himself has said--"It was one of the most
solemn assemblies I ever saw or expect to see, on this side eternity."
The stone at the head of her grave was inscribed with her name, and with
verses from the pen of her son Charles:--

HERE LIES THE BODY