CHAPTER XXVI.
Brave as a lion.—A protecting angel.—God's magic.—Foes become friends.—An unpleasant walk in rain and darkness.—What the mayor said.—A free fight.—"Knock the parson down! Kill him at once!"—Magic again.—A butcher to the rescue.—Safe back in Wednesbury.
HEN Mr. Wesley heard how his followers were being treated in Wednesbury, he went off at once to their help. Though he was only a little man, he was as brave as a lion; he knew he had God at his back, and like David before Goliath, like Daniel before Darius, and like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before Nebuchadnezzar, he did not fear what man could do unto him.
God sent His angel to close the lions' mouths so they would not harm Daniel; and the same messenger walked in the fiery furnace with the three Hebrew youths. So, when Mr. Wesley went straight into the market-place in Wednesbury, and fearlessly preached to the hundreds assembled there, God's protecting angel breathed silence and calm; not a sound of disturbance was heard. In the evening the mob surrounded the house where Mr. Wesley was staying, shouting out fiercely:
"Bring out the minister! We will have the minister!"
Mr. Wesley, neither frightened nor excited, quietly asked one of his friends to bring in the ringleader of the mob. The man came in, anger and fierceness in his eyes. But, somehow, as soon as he stood in the presence of that calm, Christ-like man, all his passion went out of him. Mr. Wesley then asked him to bring in two or three of his roughest companions. The angry men came in. They had wanted to get at the minister, now they had the chance. But once inside that room, they found they could not touch him. They felt the presence of God's protecting angel, and peace took the place of passion, and friendliness the place of hatred. Getting Mr. Wesley between them, these strange, new friends made a way for him through the mob outside the house.
Then, standing on a chair, Mr. Wesley spoke to the crowd.
"You wanted me," he said. "Here I am. Now what do you want me for?"
"We want you to go with us to the magistrate," they cried.
"I will go with you with all my heart," he replied.
So away went the brave ambassador for Christ, accompanied by hundreds of the roughest men and women in Wednesbury.
It was two miles to the magistrate's house, and before they had got half-way the night came on, and it began to rain very heavily. This made most of the people turn back and hurry home, but two hundred or more kept together round Mr. Wesley.
Some of the men ran on first to tell the magistrate they'd got the Methodist preacher. Instead of seeming pleased, the magistrate said:
"What have I to do with Mr. Wesley? Take him back again." So he sent them off, and went to bed.
By and by the crowd came up to the house, and knocked at the door. When the magistrate's son went to them and asked what was the matter, they said:
"Why, please, sir, these Methodists sing psalms all day, and make folks get up at five o'clock in the morning, and what would your worship advise us to do?"
"To go home and be quiet," replied the gentleman.
Finding they could get no help from this magistrate, they hurried poor Mr. Wesley off to another. This gentleman, too, had gone to bed, and so the mob could do nothing else but go home.
However, before they had got very far they were joined by another rough mob from a neighbouring town; and then, in the rain and the darkness, the two mobs started fighting and knocking each other down. It was no use Mr. Wesley trying to speak, for the shouting and noise was like the roaring of the sea. They dragged him along with them until they reached the town, and then, seeing the door of a large house open, Mr. Wesley tried to get in. But one of the cruel men got him by the hair and pulled him back into the middle of the mob; and then they dragged him from one end of the town to the other.
"I talked all the time to those that were within hearing," said Mr. Wesley, afterwards, "and I never felt the least pain or weariness."
At last he saw a shop door half open, and tried to get in, but the gentleman to whom the shop belonged would not let him.
"Why, the people would pull my house down," he said, "if I let you in."
"'Knock him down! Kill him at once!' cried hundreds of voices."—[Page 114].
However, Mr. Wesley stood at the door and shouted to the people: "Are you willing to hear me speak?"
"No, no; knock him down! Kill him at once!" cried hundreds of voices.
"Nay, let's hear him first," shouted others.
"What harm have I done any of you?" exclaimed the fearless preacher. "Which of you have I wronged in word or deed?"
For a quarter of an hour he talked to them, then his voice suddenly gave way, the strain had been too great.
Then the cruel mob cried out again: "Bring him away! Bring him away!"
But Mr. Wesley's strength had come back, and he began to pray aloud.
That prayer acted like magic; the man who had just before been the leader of that brutal crowd, turning to Mr. Wesley, said: "Sir, I will spend my life for you; follow me, and no one here shall touch a hair of your head."
Two or three of his companions said almost the same, and surrounded Mr. Wesley to protect him. Then four or five rough men set upon them, and tried to drag Mr. Wesley away; but a butcher, who was a little further off, shouted, "Shame! shame!" and pulled them back one after another. Some one else shouted, "For shame! For shame! let the good man go!"
Then, just as if they had been struck by magic, all the people drew back right and left, and Mr. Wesley was carried safely through.
But the danger was not quite over even yet. On the bridge which they had to cross, the mob assembled again; but Mr. Wesley's protectors took him across a mill-dam and then through some fields, and at last brought him safe into Wednesbury, with no other damage than a torn coat and a little skin scraped off one of his hands.
