Part 4 (1/2)

Salee, at the top of the main street, and within five minutes' walk of the railway station, stands the Methodist New Connexion Chapel of Berry Brow It is situated on the right-hand side of the street coround than the road, it has fro the decline and curve of the street a little further brings you to the vertex of a triangle of level ground, on the base of which the chapel stands It is fronted by a graveyard, whose two sides gradually converge towards a little iron gateway at the entrance

Seen froh even now an observer could not fail to be struck with the dwarfish look of the building; there is a want of height to give it proper proportion It shows a plain stone front, which suggests that the good people who built it had no money to spend in costly ornamentation

SALEM, the honoured name of the chapel, is inscribed on the front The Sunday-school, which is of round treasures up the dust of one by, came to this house of peace The chapel has two doors in the front; inside, the appearance is exceedingly plain; the pulpit is stationed with its back against the front wall, and is enclosed by a pew that was formerly occupied by the choir, but nowsomewhat elevated, it serves as a perallery, springing fro, and traversed by two aisles leading direct froht-hand wall, the organ is fixed The chapel is capable of accoh there have been times when, soer numbers of people that have crushed within its liether, it is a plain, unpretentious structure, by norequirements of the prosperous Church that worshi+ps there in these days

Salem Chapel, like many other places of worshi+p, has its story, full of sacred incident and interest It has been the religious birthplace of hundreds of precious souls,thitherward Many of the ablest ministers the Methodist New Connexion has ever had, have counted it a joy to preach in that old sanctuary

Several revivals of the work of God have broken out within those walls, and spread with such rapidity and power through the neighbourhood, that Satan's strongholds have trereat day of the Lord it will be said of Salem, ”This and that man were born there”

But before it was built the people used to attend the High Street Chapel, Huddersfield, which involved a walk of over two ht task The tian seriously to entertain the idea of having a place of worshi+p in their own village

Abe Lockas a the chief advocates of this sche to his activity in the th commenced and completed In the month of July 1823, Abe, full of the new Chapel enterprize, entered a harvest field belonging to Mr

S---- of Are Fold, where several members of the Society were at work, and took upon hi in a certain house that night, for the purpose of considering whether they were to have a Chapel in Berry Brow Thewas held, and the decision taken in favour of the movean the work

It was a serious undertaking for the people, but they were in earnest, and at once opened a subscription list, each of the to the fund before they went outside to solicit help from any one else They then obtained further proather theas little as a penny Then, in order to save cost as much as possible, the men themselves went and delved in the quarry for stones, and borrowed horses and carts of the farmers to remove the material to the chapel site, and when it sometimes happened that they could not obtain the use of horses, they got the loan of carts, and the , took the horse-work the place

In all this Abe was a fore any one and every one to coot e to assist in the work

This did not, however, ood people, whodirections, and finding fault, who said it was not right to bring a lot of unGodly young men into a work so sacred; they expostulated with Abe on the subject, he being the chief cause of their enlist th' Lord's haase! It ers, God will put theets into it I wouldn't care if th' devil hissen were to co stones for th'

place, if only Jesus is preached in it afterwards;” so the croakers didn't gain anything by their coht the

The foundation stone was laid on Shrove Tuesday 1824, and the chapel was opened for religious services on Good Friday 1825 The Rev Thomas Allin preached on that occasion with his usual extraordinary ability

From that time until now the cause has never looked back, but has maintained a steady onward course Seasons of trial and depression have occasionally gathered over it like dark clouds, but the earnest band of Christian people it has drawn together, have been conducted under the clouds in safety, and have lived to coain into the sunshi+ne of prosperity

There is not a trouble or a joy, not a throb of sorrow or a thrill of delight that ever ca those years, which Abe Lockwood did not feel He was so s that he counted its very pulsations as distinctly as he felt his own In later years, when other labourers were brought into the church, and his services as a local preacher careater de the cause fell into other hands; but Abe's love for Salem never did and never could diminish; to him it was the most beautiful sanctuary in the Circuit or out of it; and there it stands as a monument of the zeal and devotion of those earnest o laid its foundations, and reared its sacred walls in the naone to their reward, Abe a them, but in no sensedead yet speaketh”

CHAPTER X

Abe becomes a Local Preacher

Several years had passed away fro children had sprung up around hi him and his active wife constantly employed to supply their daily necessities Hard ti those years, but they held on their honest way, content hat they got, and envying no one that was in better circu all these years Abe continued a devoted follower of Christ; he was always at the race, and his chief aim was to be a true disciple of the cross At the sa ability to speak in the s with s and class- schools for public speakers Most of the best ministers in Methodiss, where they have had, week by week, opportunities of expressing their thoughts and feelings upon their religious life and experience; and although there are some who have profited but very little by the benefits afforded in this way, there areup to the highest ranks of the Christianinstitution Abe slowly and steadily ian to think he ought to have his naly mentioned to him, but for some time met with no very favourable response from Abe ”Come on t' plan,” exclaimed he; ”nay, not soa, unless you want toplanned”

However, circuu that men can say It occasionally transpired, that some local preacher as planned to preach in Salem Chapel did not coation had to take the vacant place, and conduct the service as well as he ht be able without any previous preparation Now it appears that Abe found hiregation were all in the chapel; the hour of service had come, and passed, yet no preacher arrived; the people hispering and looking at the clock; one brother went to the door to see if there were any sign of the preacher's coether, and then one of the to be no preacher, thou'll be like to try and talk a bit this ”

”Me, noa, I canna praach, itated

”Aye, but thou can; thou'll have to try, and we'll pray for thee”

Abe turned pale, looked up at the little pulpit, then down on the ground, and then said, ”I've now't to talk abaat, noa, I canna tak'

it” Then another brother came and united his persuasion to that of the th Abe arose and went into the singing pew in front of the pulpit, pale and trerew into a kind of co The preacher took a text, and in his own style did his best to speak from the words,--the probability is he _did speak froe proper, but what of that? He did his best, and there were none in the congregation but knew hih what he said was very unpreaching-like, it did not lad when it was over