Mob Violence.
When pulpit, press, and stage combine to crush vital Christianity they soon arouse an ally in the ignorant, restless, unholy masses, ever ready to aid in forwarding the work of the Prince of Darkness.
When pulpits in London, Bristol, Bath, and, in fact, everywhere were closed against Wesley one of two ways was open before him—he must either abandon the work to which he was sure God had called him, or he must break over ecclesiastical rules and go outside the churches. He was not long choosing.
A good-sized volume could be filled with accounts of mob violence which came upon Wesley and his people, but we have space for a few cases only, which must be taken as samples of the many.
While preaching at Moorfield a mob met him, broke down the table on which he stood, and in various ways abused and insulted him. Nothing daunted, he mounted a stone wall near by and exhorted the people until silence was restored. He often found himself here in the midst of a sea of human passion, the crowds frequently numbering from twenty to forty thousand.
At Sheffield hell from beneath seemed moved to meet him at his coming. As he was wont to do, he took his stand out of doors and faced the crowd. In the midst of his sermon a military officer rushed upon him, brandishing a sword, and threatening his life. Wesley faced him, threw open his breast, and bade him do as he liked. The officer cowered.
The preaching house was completely demolished over the heads of the devout worshipers. Wesley says: "It was a glorious time. Many found the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon them." The next day, nothing daunted, he was in the midst of the town, preaching the great salvation. The mob assembled, followed him to his lodgings, smashed in the windows, and threatened to take his life. But while the mob was howling without like beasts of prey Wesley was so little disturbed that he fell into a quiet slumber.
At Wednesbury an organized mob went to nearly all the Methodist families in town, beating and abusing men, women, and children. They spoiled their wearing apparel and cut open their beds and scattered the contents, leaving whole families houseless and homeless in midwinter and under the peltings of a pitiless storm. The people were informed that if they would sign a paper agreeing never to read or sing or pray together, or hear the Methodists preach again, their houses should not be demolished. A few complied, but the greater number answered, "We have already lost our goods, and nothing more can follow but the loss of our lives, which we will lose also rather than wrong our consciences."
A few days after, Wesley rode boldly into Wednesbury, and in a public park in the center of the town proclaimed to an immense crowd "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." The mob assembled, arrested him, and dragged him before a magistrate, who inquired, "What have Mr. Wesley and the Methodists done?"