Wesley and Card Playing

JOHN WESLEY MOMENTS

By Dave Hanson
 
As a serious bridge player, I rejoiced to learn that John Wesley enjoyed playing cards while he was a student and teacher at Oxford University. Later he sought to guide Methodists into Christian holiness and urged them to follow courses which seemed to him like worthy self-denial. Wesley sought to make abstinence from all games a sign of righteousness, though he did except card-playing on the frankly affirmed reason that his mother played cards! It is refreshing to note that little bit of insight into the life of Susanna Wesley whose life at Epworth was mostly full of dreadful duties and heavy burdens.
 
The Rev. Dave Hanson is a retired pastor and John Wesley scholar.