THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

and went by sight over hedge and ditch until I came within a mile of Lichfield. There, in a great field, shepherds were keeping their sheep. Then I was commanded by the Lord to take off my shoes. I stood still, for it was winter, but the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I took off my shoes and left them with the shepherds; the poor shepherds trembled and were astonished. Then I walked on about a mile, and as soon as I entered the city, the word of the Lord came to me again, saying: 'Cry, "Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!"' So I went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, 'Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!' It being market day, I went into the marketplace, moving back and forth in its various parts, and stopped at intervals, crying as before, 'Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!' And no one laid hands on me. As I went crying through the streets, there seemed to me to be a channel of blood running down the streets, and the marketplace appeared like a pool of blood. When I had declared what was upon me and felt myself clear, I left the town in peace. Returning to the shepherds, I gave them some money and took my shoes back from them. But the fire of the Lord was so on my feet and all over me that I did not care to put on my shoes again, and I hesitated as to whether I should or not, until I felt the freedom from the Lord to do so. Then, after I had washed my feet, I put on my shoes again. After this, a deep consideration came upon me as to why I was sent to cry against that city and call it 'The bloody city.' For though the Parliament had held the church a "minster" is a large or important church, often a cathedral. at one time, and the King at another, and much blood had been shed in the town during the wars between them The English Civil War (1642–1651)., yet there was no more bloodshed there than in many other places. But afterwards I came to understand that in the time of the Emperor Diocletian Emperor of Rome (284–305 AD), known for the last great persecution of Christians., a thousand Christians were martyred in Lichfield. So I was to go, without my shoes, through the channel of their blood and into the pool of their blood in the marketplace, that I might raise up the memory of the blood of those martyrs, which had been shed over a thousand years before and lay cold in their streets. So the sense of this blood was upon me, and I obeyed the word of the Lord."