feelings, the petitioner's ignorance of the rules of language. That man seemed to wrestle with God. He grasped the promises with an earnestness seldom equalled, and, perhaps, never surpassed. He had been in his youth notoriously wicked. Intemperance, impurity, Sabbath-breaking, and profanity had been his habitual practices. At the age of thirty he had been arrested, convicted, humbled, and saved; and his subsequent life was a vivid illustration of the Divine power of Christianity. He was a Bunyan on a limited scale; and the mothers of the village, who had formerly held him up to their sons as a warning, now pointed to him as an example for imitation. His humility and tenderness of conscience were remarkable. Everything approaching to profanity or thoughtlessness in word or look filled him with sorrow, and his efforts to promote truth and purity exhibited the depth of his religious convictions and the genuineness of his piety,

William Small justified his cognomen. His ideas revolved in a circle, and that a very narrow one. To express an opinion different from his, was as painful as if you had punctured him with one of his own needles. The best suggestion was ill-timed and impracticable, or quite out of the question, if it did not originate in Small's mind. Nothing moved properly if he were not the motive power. He was fond of praise, and would draw his bony fingers over his thin cheeks with obvious complacency, if a slight compliment entered his ear; but he was by no means liberal in praising others. Among his other qualifications, he was singularly addicted to the practice of writing long epistles to his neighbours, and even to persons at a distance, who were reported to have said or done anything which he thought wrong. I got into ill-favour with the worthy man on one occasion, and was honoured with a long and very serious letter in consequence. My offence consisted in pleading the cause of missions to the

172

A CAUSTIC EPISTLE.

heathen, and asking the congregation to contribute as liberally as their circumstances would permit. The affair was rather caustic in its way, and substantially urged the following points :-that he had no objection to the gospel being sent abroad—although, if the heathen were not among God's elect, it was no use; but he thought the rich men in London and elsewhere should do it, and not send their begging-letters to poor country people who scarcely had bread to eat;—that the foreign missionaries were kept like gentlemen, and did little but send home letters to be printed ;—that all that was done was not worth the hundredth part of the expense incurred in doing it ;-that the Directors were haughty gentlemen, who would not condescend to speak to a poor body, except when they visit the country as deputations, and then they are all kindness and humility in the hope of obtaining funds;-that we have too many heathen at home, and to send the money out of the country while they were neglected was a very wicked thing; that the poor people had not a penny to spare ;—and that I must not beg in that way again! I smiled at the epistle, and threw it in the fire. Honest William does not know to this day whether it ever reached my hands.

Daniel Hayall was a singular being, afflicted with constitutional melancholy, which caused him to follow his business like a man half asleep. Occasionally, however, there were spasms of energy, in connection chiefly with school and chapel matters, when he threatened to carry everything before him; and when, as a matter of course, Mr. Small's official dignity was wounded, and Mr. Hedger's solicitude for the peace of the Church was awakened.

Such were the men with whom I had to act, in my efforts to accomplish the work to which I had been set apart. But how to harmonize these singular materials was a problem requiring some thought. Happily it

APPEALING TO THE HEART.

173

was soon solved. I noted their individual peculiarities, and sought some common bond of union-something common to thein all-which I could make the basis of an effort to promote united action. I found this in their piety. They were all good men, consequently they were sincerely anxious for the prosperity of the Church; and even William Small, notwithstanding his notions about the heathen, rejoiced as sincerely as the rest in the conversion of transgressors to the obedience of faith. I appealed to their hearts, therefore, whenever united action was necessary, and invariably succeeded. I also felt the importance of avoiding anything like partiality. Men of limited information are jealous of preferences shown to their equals by their common pastor. I laid down the rule, therefore, that the three brethren should be called to engage in the prayermeeting in rotation. This answered well; and, after a little patient training, I found them not only useful, but anxious mutually to carry out my suggestions for the good of the people.

The congregation soon increased, and several persons were brought under the influence of truth, and gave evidence of its power in a new life. During the first year of my ministry, thirty names were added to the list of church-members. By an examination of the church-book I found that, during the twelve years of my predecessor's pastorate, only ten persons altogether had been enrolled. This revival and these proofs of prosperity supplied matter both for gratitude and vigilance. Let it not be thought, however, that I was allowed to proceed quietly all this time. Such events in a rural population seldom take place without exciting opposition of some sort. My own people were united, happy, and grateful; but as soon as the rumour of an increased congregation and church circulated, I was exposed to a cross-fire from quarters which certainly had very little sympathy with each other. There was

174

MY ORTHODOXY DOUBTED.

a small chapel in the village, occupied by a very select society of persons, who were more remarkable for their attachment to the doctrine of election than to that of charity. My soundness in the faith was doubted by those worthy persons, and the suspicion was zealously circulated. It is true, they did not come to me with the generous purpose of instructing an erring brother; perhaps this idea did not occur to them; but they did the next best thing-urged the villagers to hear their teacher, and warned them against hearing me. It was certain that I was an "Arminian," and it was not at all impossible that I was a Jesuit; for in these days of pretence, popery, and false doctrine, no man could trust another; and, in fact, no man could be safe except he went to Mr. Height's chapel. I may remark,

by the way, that this was an alarming climax, as Mr. Height's chapel could hold only one hundred and fifty persons. On the other hand, the slumbering zeal of my neighbour, the vicar of Rowly, was suddenly awakened. He noticed, to his dismay, that several members of his congregation were more than usually irregular in their attendance. Although, geographi'cally, he had no right to superintend Willowfield, yet the church-going portion of the villagers had practically given him that right by attending his ministry. The repeated absence of some of them was, therefore, a subject for inquiry. And, to make the matter worse, several of his own parishioners, over whom he had a legal right to watch, had been seen wending their way to Willowfield on a Sunday. What was to be done? To denounce the schismatic from the parish pulpit was an easy thing; but what good would that do, if the wandering sheep were not present to hear the denunciation? Besides, the Rev. Godfrey Patristic was too wise for that. It would have acted like the intimation of spring guns upon thieves-or an auctioneer's placard, on the pump opposite the Wounded Hare, upon

USEFUL ARTICLES.

175

idlers and tipplers-the next Sunday the chapel would have been crowded with gaping and eager listeners. And as to the petition in the Litany

"From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism:

Good Lord, deliver us,"

why, it had been so often presented that, unhappily, it had come to mean-nothing. The sixty or seventy Rowly petitioners, who said "Amen," through the lips of the worthy Mr. Parrot, would never have thought of me, or any other schism teacher in particular, but of all. sorts of bad things in general-that is to say, if they thought at all. Mr. Patristic was too well acquainted with the peculiarities of human nature to give me the benefit of a gratuitous advertisement of this kind. Hence he adopted the not very original, but generally successful, plan of trying to countervail nonconformist teaching by those substantial gifts which appeal to the senses. Shoes, stockings, flannel, coals, tea, sugar, and medicine found their way into the houses of the poor, the aged, and the sick, as if some good genii had reported the domestic circumstances of the people to the benevolent dwellers in the vicarage; and the bearers of these useful articles were instructed to insinuate that the recipients were expected to show their faces at church. These donations were followed, in most cases, by a visit from the reverend vicar himself, who admonished his parishioners respecting the evils of carelessness in general, and the sin of dissent in particular, with a zeal which was both edifying and new. I could not find fault with all this. Why should I? On the contrary-it gave me real pleasure. The poor people stood in need of these bodily comforts, and I was as willing as the vicar to bestow them; but I had not the There was only one thing with which I could reasonably quarrel, namely, the condition upon which a repetition of these gifts was suspended. This, however,

means.