Do What You Do Best
Peter Cartwright was an early Methodist circuit rider in the American Wild West in the 1800’s. He was known as a no-nonsense preacher, as the following story illustrates.
Camp meetings drawing sometimes thousands of hungry souls were becoming popular. There could be as many as a dozen preachers all preaching at the same time to groups of the great crowds, with up to a thousand people listening to each. These gatherings began to gather whiskey sellers and others wanting to break up the meetings. A sheriff arrested a whiskey seller only to have a drunken mob attack him and release the offender. Peter Cartwright was called. He gathered a handful of trusted men and chased the mob. Catching them, he grappled his way into the middle and wrestled the whiskey seller to the ground. The whiskey seller drew a gun and threatened to shoot Cartwright and each of his followers. Without hesitation Peter Cartwright threw himself on the man. A shot was fired but missed. One of the mob (a drunken deputy sheriff) tried to arrest Cartwright but found himself overpowered by the big preacher. With his friends holding the whiskey seller, and the drunk deputy sheriff knocked senseless, Cartwright had the only gun. The mob backed off. By this time the sheriff had arrived and took the whiskey seller, the drunk deputy sheriff and twelve other ring leaders into custody. Peter Cartwright then returned to doing what he did best – preaching.
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