Mobs and Riots
MOBS AND RIOTS
John Wesley decided to return for a few days to Epworth.
He had not forgotten how his father had worked there, and how savagely the people had treated him. He asked his friend John
Taylor to go with him.
But when they arrived in the village, the curate would not allow them to preach in the church. On the street John had been recognized and pointed out.
"There be John Wesley, son of our old parson! I would like right well to hear him preach," said a farmer to his wife.
That Sunday morning the church was crowded. The curate stiffly gave out a sermon in which he said that too much "enthusiasm" about preaching was a sin. There was a whispering passing through the church, for the people all knew that he meant the Wesleys. As people walked out into the noontime there stood John
Taylor. He said quietly, "Mr. Wesley, not being permitted to preach in the church, expects to preach here at six o'clock."
At six o'clock people flocked into the churchyard. John Wesley was standing quietly on his father's large flat tombstone. A deep silence fell on the little churchyard.
John Wesley preached as he always did, simply and earnestly and with conviction. He did not shout and fling himself about and threaten with punishment from on high. He told the people that they, poor and unimportant as they were, were important to God. When he finished, as shadows fell across the peaceful spot, people came up to ask him to remain longer and to preach again.
He stayed seven days more. Every evening he preached on
his father's tomb. Then he went away with a feeling of happiness. For years both he and his father had preached and worked with these people, with no success. Now he could tell that they had not worked in vain.
As he jogged along the dusty road on his horse, with an open book in his hand, he said to himself: Now the fruit of our labors has appeared, and the seed sown so long ago has now sprung up.
When John returned to London he hastened to his mother, who was ill at their home in the Foundry. He was anxious to tell her of the experience in Epworth. But when he arrived he found her condition worse. She smiled, and her eyes brightened with pride as he told her of his preaching in Epworth. John was glad that she could hear of it now, for he could see that her life was nearly over. As John and Charles, with their sisters, sat beside their mother's bed, they all thought of the long years of loving service she had given to them. John thought also of the important part that she had played in the Methodist movement, and how much her advice and loyal help had meant to them.
Not long after his mother's death John Wesley went back to Newcastle, where he wanted to build a place of worship. He scarcely knew how it would be paid for, but he had the faith and
courage to go ahead with the building of it. A Quaker who had heard of the plan sent Wesley a hundred pounds with a letter:
"Friend Wesley —1I have had a dream concerning thee. I thought I saw thee surrounded with a large flock of sheep, which thou didst not know what to do with. My first thought when I awoke was, that it was thy flock at Newcastle, and that thou hadst no house of worship for them."
One of John Wesley's friends was Sophia Cooke. When she came to the Foundry in London, Wesley would greet her gaily with, "Live today, Sophy!" She had been a sad girl, seeing and feeling the troubles of all those around her. John Wesley was always cheerful and friendly. His advice to live well for each day brought a smile to her face and gave her courage. Sophy came from Gloucester. There she knew a man named Robert Raikes.
He was as concerned with the bad conditions as she was.
One day, after Sophy returned to Gloucester, Robert Raikes looked with pity at the dirty, fighting children in the streets. He asked Sophy, "What shall we do for these poor neglected children?"
"Let us teach them to read, and take them to church."
So Robert Raikes started the first Sunday school in England.
He lured the children to it by offering them buns and hot potatoes.
Once there, he taught them to read and write, to do sums, and to learn the Scripture and to pray. After a short while the little school in Soot Lane was so large that "four decent women" were hired to conduct it.
John Wesley also felt that he must do something for children.
His building in Newcastle was called the Orphan House. It stood just outside Pilgrim Gate, and it was here that Wesley established
a Sunday school in England. At that time many children were badly treated. Those of rich families were not thought to be important, and were kept out of sight as much as possible until they were grown up. But the children of the poor wandered the streets in vast hordes of ragged hungry waifs, thieving and fighting. Parents sold their boys for five pounds apiece, and girls for four, to be trained for chimney sweeps. At five years old children were often put to work down in the mines.
John Wesley also established the Kingswood School for boys, near Bristol. This was a boarding school where rules were strict, and life was not easy. Yet in this school there was no punishment by flogging, and no cruel treatment of the younger boys. Always there was justice and kindness. John Wesley had a study there, which he called his "sweet retreat."
Sunday schools were always important to John Wesley. He often talked to classes in them, in Bristol and in other towns. He called the Sunday schools his "nurseries for Christians."
The choir of the Orphan House at Newcastle became one of the best in the country. Miners and boatmen of the district were so eager to hear John Wesley preach that they would lie down on the benches after evening services and sleep there until the hour
for early morning service. During this time many Methodist Societies were organized through all that part of the country. Charles
Wesley was traveling also, sometimes with his brother, sometimes alone, preaching and teaching his hymns to the people. He and John were making Methodism a singing religion.
But, for all this, things were not always easy for the Wesley brothers. Often mobs gathered, urged on by politicians who did. not want people to be educated. John Wesley's forehead carried a scar, made by a stone flung at him. Once he was thrown into a horsepond. Charles Wesley said that he could tell the houses of Methodists by the marks of violence on them.
Sometimes preachers told crowds to stone the Methodists.
These were the preachers who spent most of their time drinking, hunting, and gambling. Sometimes judges also persecuted Methodists. But there were others who did not approve of persecution.
Once John Wesley had a visit from a judge who said, "Sir, you have no need to suffer these riotous mobs to molest you, as they have done long. I and other magistrates have orders to do you justice whenever you apply to us."
Later the Methodists did apply for aid when ruffans tried to break up services, and some hoodlums were arrested.
Outside London crowds were sometimes violent. Wednesbury was a town where riots kept breaking out. John Wesley went there to help the Methodist Society. He preached once without trouble, but as he prayed afterward he heard the noise of a great mob, yelling and cursing. They shouted, "Bring out the parson.
We will have that parson!"
John Wesley could look like a little fighting gamecock. He
oe a ay
walked quietly, but firmly and with flashing eyes, to the door.
Flinging it open, he pulled a chair to it. He climbed upon the chair and stood there calling, "What do any of you want with me?"
The wild rough crowd was suddenly silent. This parson was so small, and yet he did not know fear! Some dropped their sticks
and stones. But a man shouted, "You are breaking the law. Come to the judge'with us, if you dare!"
Before John Wesley could speak, he heard a woman burst out, "This gentleman is an honest gentleman. We will spill our blood in his defense."
John Wesley stepped down. A crowd of people, suddenly friendly, surrounded him as he walked quietly toward the judge's house. The rest of the mob went home. It was dark, and torches swayed back and forth in the hands of the men, casting strange shadows on their wild faces.
At the judge's home a servant shouted from a window, "My master is abed. Go away!"
But the crowd wanted to prove the law, and see how the parson took it. They walked, with Wesley in their midst, to Walsall, a nearby village, to find another judge. Here a different mob appeared suddenly, and tried to take Wesley from the first one.
The woman who had defended him leaped at the attackers and fought like a man. John Wesley stepped into a doorway and raised his voice. For a quarter of an hour he spoke to them, although at first he could not be heard in the uproar. The noise died down.
Unexpectedly a man cried out, "Sir, I will spend my life for you. Follow me, and not one soul here shall touch a hair of your head!"
They did not find a judge in Walsall who would come out, and so they started back for Wednesbury. But a Walsall mob followed them. As they tried to cross a bridge John Wesley looked down at the dark flowing river and wondered if he could swim across. But, because he was so short, many blows fell not on him but on others behind him. At last his new friends won the battle, and he was taken home.
As he saw the pale faces of his Methodist friends, who had thought him dead by now, he showed them his damages with a little smile. One flap of his waistcoat was gone, along with a little skin from his hand. He had had two hard blows on the head, but they had done no real damage.
"It is my rule," said John Wesley calmly, "always to look a mob in the face." He won many friends everywhere, in spite of riots and mobs, by his courage, and by his kindness.
Two days later in Wednesbury Charles asked the big man who had defended John, and who came then to join the Methodists, what he thought of John Wesley.
"What do I think of him?" boomed the man. "That he is a man of God. And God was on his side, when so many of us could not kill one man."