It was on this day in 1768, that the sheriff of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, along with three magistrates, stood in the yard before a Baptist meetinghouse, seizing John Waller, Lewis Craig, James Reed, and William Mash. The preachers were ordered to appear in court two days later, under penalty of one thousand pounds a piece, which was a huge sum of money. At court they were arranged as disturbers of the peace. The State’s attorney said to the judges, “May it please your worships these men… cannot meet a man upon the road, but they must ram a text of Scripture down his throat.”
On their way to the old stone gaol, the brethren locked their arms and sang an old hymn: “Broad is the road that leads to death, And thousands walk together there; But wisdom shows a narrow path, With here and there a traveler.”
Historian Lewis Little wrote: “These men could sing, like the Apostles in the jail at Philippi, under the most trying circumstances, because there was a joy in their souls. If there were those who ridiculed them as they went through the streets singing that resounding song, what did they care? What would the nightingale care if the toad despised her singing?”