Wesley's Deliverance From Mobs by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 2, 1910

Wesley's Deliverance From Mobs

By W. A. S.

THERE was a time when Methodism was so unpopular as to draw upon itself the bitterest opposition of the mob. John Wesley had many experiences of deliverance by the manifest interposition of God in turning aside blows aimed at him with murderous intent, or in turning the hearts of violent men in his favor.

At Wednesbury, in England, John Wesley was attacked by a mob that gathered outside the house, shouting, “Bring out the minister!” The leader was invited in, and after a few words became as mild as a lamb. He went out and brought in two others, who were mad with rage, but in two minutes they were as mild as he. Then Wesley addressed the mob, and they cried out, “We will spill our blood in his defense.”

In the hands of a Walsall mob he was pulled and dragged about for hours. Amid the tumult he prayed aloud. The leader of the mob turned, and said, “Sir, I will spend my life for you. Follow me, and not one soul here shall touch a hair of your head.”

A heavy man repeatedly struck at his head with a large oak stick. Every time the blow was turned aside. One man raised his arm to strike, says the biographer, but suddenly dropped it, and stroked Wesley's head, saying, “What soft hair he has.” That wild night, the history says, the greatest profligate in the country carried Wesley through a river on his shoulders to escape the mob, the man later becoming a zealous Methodist.

Experiences while preaching from the pedestal of a monumental village cross at Bolton are thus related:—

One man was bawling at Wesley's ear, when a stone struck him on his cheek, and he was still. Another was forcing his way down to push the preacher off, when a missile struck him on the forehead, and his course was stayed. A third man got close to Wesley and stretched out his hand, when a sharp stone hit him smartly on the joints of his fingers, disabling him.

But with stones flying thus all about him, Wesley preached on unscathed.

In Ireland a mayor sent agents to disturb, and to create riot.

The rabble threw whatever came to hand, but nothing hit the preacher. He walked forward quietly, looked every man in the face, the rioters opening right and left as he passed along. When he reached his friend's house, a papist stood in the door to prevent his entrance. Just then one of the mob aimed a blow at Wesley, which knocked the papist down flat. He had nothing to do but step in.

One rioter, who was converted by what he saw of Wesley's bearing before the mob, was afterward asked what he thought of the preacher.

“Think of him?” he replied; “that he is a man of God; and that God was on his side, when so many of us could not kill one man.”

Not too often can we take to our hearts the lesson that God actually does things for those who depend upon his power in a time of crisis. He can paralyze the arm that is raised to strike. Greatest of all the deliverances, however, was that wrought by the grace that delivered Wesley's heart from fear and his spirit from resentment in those turbulent times. We need this lesson to-day. W. A. S.