Sunday, July 31, 2011

Saved by a Hare

Sun. 31 July 1774. The church could not contain the congregation, either morning or afternoon. But in the evening, I preached to a still larger congregation at Broseley, and equally attentive. I now learned the particulars of a remarkable story, which I had heard imperfectly before. . . . Sometime since, one of the colliers here, coming home at night, dropped into a coal-pit twenty-four yards deep. He called aloud for help, but none heard all that night and all the following day. The second night, being weak and faint, he fell asleep and dreamed that his wife, who had been some time dead, came to him and greatly comforted him. In the morning, a gentleman going a-hunting, an hare started up just before the hounds, ran straight to the mouth of the pit and was gone, no man could tell how. The hunters searched all round the pit till they heard a voice from the bottom. They quickly procured proper help and drew up the man unhurt.