How Mr. Wesley settled a school-boys'
quarrel.--Dr. Watts and little birds.--Mr. Wesley,
loved and honoured.--A holiday for the children.
HERE is a story of how Mr. Wesley settled a dispute between two
quarrelsome school-boys. When he was an old man, seventy-three, he was
staying with one of his local preachers, a Mr. Bush, who had a
boarding-school. One day Mrs. Bush brought to him two boys who had been
fighting.
"Boys! boys!" said Mr. Wesley:
"'Birds in their little nests agree,
And 'tis a shameful sight,
When children of one family
Fall out, and chide, and fight!'
You must make it up. Come now, shake hands with each other."
Mr. Wesley, with his long white hair and beautiful face, looked and
spoke so lovingly, that the boys did at once what he asked them.
"Now," he said, "put your arms round each other's necks, and kiss each
other."
And the little boys did this too. He was just having his tea when Mrs.
Bush brought in the culprits, and now taking two pieces of bread and
butter, he folded them together and told each boy to break a piece off.
Then he gave each of them a drink of tea out of his own cup.
"Now," he added, "you have broken bread together, and you have drunk out
of the same cup, now you must be friends." Then he put his hands on the
boys' heads and blessed them. The next morning at family prayer he
sought out the boys and blessed them again.
The two lads never forgot this meeting with Mr. Wesley. One of them
became a magistrate, and when he had children of his own he used to tell
them this story of his school-days.
I remember that little verse of Dr. Watts' being recited to my brothers
and me when we were in the nursery, and as I wrote it down I wondered if
the same thoughts came into the heads of those school-boys that came
into mine. My dear mother used to look very serious when she said it,
and it sounded very solemn. But I had often seen little birds
quarrelling, and I knew that hymn did not tell the truth, and so I felt
little birds were hardly a proper example to follow. Now, though Dr.
Watts was not quite correct, still little birds do agree very much
better than many children; and if they sometimes quarrel, remember they
are only guided by instinct, while you have sense, and know the
difference between right and wrong.
You will all be glad to know that before Mr. Wesley died, all the
ill-will and hatred of the people had changed to love and reverence. The
very towns where he had been treated most unkindly were now the ones to
give him the heartiest welcome. Instead of mobs waiting to abuse him,
crowds gathered to do him honour. In many places the children had a
holiday from school, the tradespeople closed their shops, and everybody
tried who could best show their love and respect for the man whom before
they had treated so unkindly.
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