The neighbors around the town where John lived did not like to hear John’s father preach. They did not like to be told that they were sinners, and so one night some of them set fire to the Wesley home.
Everyone in the family woke up to the shouts of “Fire! Fire!” and ran out of the house - every-one except John, that is. He had been sleeping so soundly that he did not wake up until everyone was gone. By the time he did awake, the flames were roaring outside his door. He went to the window and began to cry. His father tried to run upstairs to rescue him but the staircase fell down with a crash. Mr. Wesley could only fall down on his knees and pray for poor John, for there were no fire engines in those days to come to the rescue. God heard and answered those prayers quickly.
Some people in the street saw little John at the window. One man stood on the shoulders of another man and brought John safely down. John never forgot that awful night, and after he grew up he had this verse written under a picture of himself, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” He had been plucked out of the fire in his home but later he knew that God also had plucked him out of a worse fire that burns forever.