"A little before ten o'clock God brought me safe to Wednesbury, having
lost only one flap of my waistcoat, and a little skin from one of my
hands. From the beginning to the end I found the same presence of mind
as if I had been sitting in my own study. But I took no thought from
one moment to another; only once it came into my mind that, if they
should throw me into the river, it would spoil the papers that were in
my pocket. For myself I did not doubt but I should swim across, having
but a thin coat and a light pair of shoes."
At Pensford the rabble made a bull savage, and then tried to make it
attack his congregation; at Whitechapel they drove cows among the
listeners and threw stones, one of which hit Wesley between the eyes;
but after he had wiped away the blood he went on with his address,
telling the people that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear".
At St. Ives in Cornwall there was a great uproar, but Wesley went
amongst the mob and brought the chief mischiefmaker out. Strange to
say, the preacher received but one blow, and then he reasoned the case
out with the agitator, and the man undertook to quiet his companions.
Thus Wesley went fearlessly from place to place. He visited Ireland
forty-two times, as well as Scotland and Wales. When he was
eighty-four he crossed over to the Channel Islands in stormy weather;
and there "high and low, rich and poor, received the Word gladly".
He always went on horseback till quite late in life, when his friends
persuaded him to have a chaise. No weather could stop him from keeping
his engagements. In 1743 he set out from Epworth to Grimsby; but was
told at the ferry he could not cross the Trent owing to the storm.
But he was determined his Grimsby congregation should not be
disappointed; and he so worked on the boatmen's feelings that they
took him over even at the risk of their lives.
At Bristol, in 1772, he was told that highwaymen were on the road,
and had robbed all the coaches that passed, some just previously. But
Wesley felt no uneasiness, "knowing," as he writes, "that God would
take care of us; and He did so, for before we came to the spot all the
highwaymen were taken, and so we went on unmolested, and came safe to
Bristol".
This immense labour had no ill effect upon his health. In June, 1786,
when he was entering his eighty-fourth year, he writes: "I am a wonder
to myself. It is now twelve years since I have felt such a sensation
as weariness. I am never tired either with writing, preaching, or
travelling."
When Wesley was on his death-bed he wrote to Wilberforce cheering him
in his struggle against the slave trade.
"Unless God has raised you up for this very thing," writes Wesley,
"you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils, but if God
be for you who can be against you?... Go on in the name of God and in
the power of His might till even American slavery, the vilest that
ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it."
Wesley died, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, in the year 1791. He had
saved no money, so had none to leave behind; but he was one of those
"poor" persons who "make many rich".
Amongst his few small gifts and bequests was "£6 to be divided among
the six poor men named by the assistant who shall carry my body to the
grave; for I particularly desire that there be no hearse, no coach, no
escutcheon, no pomp".