see her any more.
She married, soon after, the chief magistrate of the colony, and before
long we find Wesley publicly reprehending her for "something in her
behavior of which he disapproved," and threatening even to exclude her
from the communion of the Church until she should have signified her
sincere repentance. Her family took legal proceedings against him.
Wesley did not care; he was about to return to England, and he was
called on to give bail for his reappearance in the colony. He
contemptuously refused to do anything of the kind, and promptly sailed
from Savannah.

This little episode of the Georgian girl is characteristic of the man.
He did not care about marrying her, but it did not seem to him a matter
of much importance either way, and he doubtless would have married her
but that he thought it well to seek the advice of his Moravian friends,
and bound himself to abide by their decision. That decision once
given, he had no further wavering or {137} doubt, but the course he had
taken and the manner in which he had completely thrown over the woman
did not prevent him in the least from visiting her with a public rebuke
when he saw something in her conduct of which he disapproved. He saw
no reason why, because he refused to be her lover, he should fail in
his duty as her minister.

[Sidenote: 1738--Wesley's unhappy marriage]

We may anticipate a little as to Wesley's personal history. Later in
his life he married. He was not happy in his marriage. He took for
his wife a widow who plagued him by her narrow-mindedness, her
bitterness, and her jealousy. Wesley's care and kindness of the women
who came under his ministrations set his wife wild with suspicion and
anger. She could not believe that a man could be kind to a woman, even
as a pastor, without having evil purpose in his heart. She had the
temper of a virago; she stormed against her husband, she threatened
him, she sometimes rushed at him and tore his hair; she repeatedly left
his house, but was prevailed upon by him to return. At last after a
fierce quarrel she flung out of the house, vowing that she would never
come back. Wesley's comment, which he expressed in Latin, was stern
and characteristic: "I have not left her, I have not put her away, I
will never recall her." He kept his word.

Wesley started on his mission to preach to the people and to pray with
them. Whitefield and Charles Wesley did the same. Charles Wesley was
the hymn wr