Wesley Retrospective, part 3

October 20, 1743, Wesley was staying with a friend, doing some writing and encouraging the faithful when a mob surrounded the house he was in. The people inside the house began to pray and the mob dispersed, but Wesley suspected they would be back. They did come back.

Wesley had some of the folks inside the house bring the leader of the mob in and talked to him, calming him down, and then brought in two of the angriest members of the mob "who were ready to swallow the ground in rage, but in two minutes they were calm as he." Wesley then thought it might be safe to go out, but alas. The mob demanded to take him to the Justice. The complaint of the mob before the first Justice (who was asleep) was, "They sing psalms all day and make folks rise at five in the morning!" The Justice sent word that he didn't care and they should go home.

They then sought out another Justice, with pretty much the same result.

Wesley writes after the mob's disappointment, "to attempt speaking was in vain, for the noise on every side was like the roaring of the sea. So they dragged me along till we came to the town; where seeing the door of a large house open, I attempted to go in; but a man catching me by the hair (Wesley had long hair), pulled me back into the middle of the mob... At the west end of the town, seeing a door half open, I made toward it and would have gone in, but a gentleman in shop would not let me, saying the mob would pull the house down to the ground." Wesley tried to reason with the mob. Then he prayed and 3 or 4 men in the mob changed their minds and decided to protect Wesley. A butcher in town dragged away a few of the most agitated mob members. Then things settled down and Wesley was being escorted out of town by some of the very ones who had clamored to dash his brains out. But the mob reformed on the bridge at the edge of town.

A woman, formerly in the mob also decided to defend Wesley, and knocked down three or four men, but was herself overpowered. Wesley noted that three men held her down and were beating her with all their might until a man called them out by name.

Wesley remarked a number of interesting events. Someone kept trying to hit him with a large oak stick, but could never quite get him. Another ran up to him to throw him to the ground, but when he grabbed Welsey's hair, all he could do was say, "what fine hair he has..." And Wesley notes he was hit very hard twice, once on the chest and once in the mouth, "which caused the blood to gush out immediately," but he did not feel either.

This is hard core. We back off preaching the unadorned truth of the Gospel because someone might complain about our sermons and leave. Or put less money in the offering plate. Maybe if were getting our butts whipped for preaching, we would not care who came or left, or what they thought.