Each of us has experienced days that stand out in our memories as none others.  Those days when the excitement of the moment or the inspiration of the setting convinced us that “surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.”  When such situations occur, we are willing to alter most any schedule or change any plans just to make the excitement of the moment linger.
    Even though Wesley had a tight itinerary laid out before him, there were occasions and locations in which the presence of God was so powerful that he would rearrange his appointments.  One such place and time was in Yorkshire (probably in the town of York or the countryside nearby).  York is a delightful city with much of the wall that surrounded it still in place.  My wife and I visited there a few years ago, along with my son and his wife, who happened to be from York, Alabama.  This quaint British village had a special charm for her because it was the namesake of her own hometown, and you could see the excitement she was experiencing.
    Wesley writes in his Journal: “I began preaching at seven, and God applied it to the hearts of the believers.  Tears and groans were on every side among high and low.  God, as it were, bowed the heavens and came down.  The flame of love went before him, the rocks were broken in pieces, and the mountains flowed down at his presence.” 
Wesley writes: “I had designed to set out for Lincolnshire this morning. But finding that a day of God's power was come, I sent one thither in my place.”  He stayed in Yorkshire an extra day.  “Let us work together with him, when, and where, as he pleases!”
    Thomas Mitchell, the lay preacher sent ahead to Lincolnshire in Wesley's stead, wrote of that night in Yorkshire that he “never saw a congregation so affected.  Most of the people were in tears, some for joy, and some from a sense of their sins.”  Some days are like that, just too good to end, and so they live on in our memories.  It happened for us in York in 1996, and it happened for John Wesley and Thomas Mitchell and who knows how many others in that same charming British village many years earlier.