The Blacksmith's Son Who Became a Preacher

In 1725, the elders of Epworth, England, fully expected young Samuel Wesley Jr. to carry on the family's clerical legacy as the firstborn son. But it was his younger brother John — the fifteenth child, pulled from a burning rectory at age five — whom God had marked for a different purpose entirely. When Susanna Wesley insisted on educating John with unusual spiritual rigor, neighbors questioned her methods.…