Part 16 (2/2)

The next day I called, and found this lady quite broken down, and ready to pray and listen to reatly relieved after the night's restlessness I hadout the way of salvation as an experi She knew, before I did, the doctrine of the A tenement, but she had had no experience of its real efficacy Now that her eyes were opened, she was in right earnest to know the reality of sins forgiven Soon she found this, though not yet the joy of deliverance; she knew the peace and shelter of the sprinkled blood (Exod 12:13), but not yet the joy and liberty of being on the rock on the other side of the Red Sea (Exod 15: 2) I was sure that it would all come in due time, and therefore was able to take coood deal of her at that tiy that she was not converted before

”Certainly,” I replied, ”I shall be happy to meet him, and hope you will be in the room”

When the dreaded man arrived, ere introduced to one another

”Well,” he said, ”you are a very different-looking than to what I iined I have heard a deal about you So you are a Puseyite turned Evangelical, eh? I have often heard of people going the other way, but I must say I have never met a man who had come in this direction” He then asked about the results of my industry

I told him as the effect in ns followed the preaching of the Gospel wherever I went ”I wish,” he said, ”you would coreat friend of mine at Veryam and have preached in his pulpit Will you do the same for me?”

”Oh, yes,” I said, ”certainly, with pleasure”

”Now, look at me, for I am a man of business: ill you come? Name your day”

I looked at my pocket-book, and fixed upon a certain Monday

Then he arranged that we should have a kind of , ”In the course of which,” he said, ”you can preach as oes well, ill have a lecture the next evening on 'Heart Conversion,' and another the evening following, on so else” He was ”quite sure noone would co, or so the people out”

On the day appointed, the barn where ere asse that the people were interested, the vicar gave out, ”Mr Hasla on Heart Conversion”

The next evening, e arrived, we found the barn quite full, and nu outside; besides, there were many more e passed on the road So it was detero into the church and have a short service The edifice was soon lighted, and filled, and after a few collects and hymns (for they had a hymn-book in that church), I went up into the pulpit, and preached upon the absolute necessity of conversion--no salvation without it As to ”heart conversion,” what is conversion at all if the heart is not touched? Then I treated my subject from another point of view ”Every converted person here knohat heart conversion is; and if any one does not, it is clear he is not converted If he dies in that state, he wilt be lost for ever!” I concluded the ser in the pulpit, one after another of the people in the pews began to cry aloud for mercy My friend Mary likened it to a battle-field, andfrom one wounded one to another to help the to hold another the next day

On Wednesdayto her, ”Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”

”Then all one He has borne them He 'Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree'”

She was filled with joy unspeakable, and ca

The lady of the house was in tears, the servants were troubled, and the vicar alternately glad and sorry, for he was not sure whether it was excitement or the work of God, and did not knohat tohe broke down in his reading-desk in the middle of the sermon, and burst out, ”Lord, save ation was up, and the people everywhere either crying forThe power of the Lord was present to heal theht; and besides these, there were others ere troubled

A squire of the parish He was afterwards decidedly converted to God, and took great interest in the work When twitted on the bench by his brother round ood testimony He continues to this day a bold champion for the truth as it is in Jesus

CHAPTER 21

Golant Mission, 1854

It is a good plan to strike while the iron is hot;' and as the people at Colant were in an interested and receptive state, I put off other things which had been appointed, and ements to return to the battle-field as soon as possible My people were much excited to hear what I was able to tell them of my three days' visit, and they wishedly, on the following Monday I went back to Colant, and found the place (an unusually quiet country village), together with the whole neighbourhood round, including two or three small towns all astir As a rule, in order to insure success in a mission, there needs preparation, visitation, and prayer; and I have observed that when there has been no preparation in the way of public announcements of services, the people have not come out, and the ular systeations have been abundant, but the services have been dry and hard; but in places where preparation and visitation have been made withSo h God is not bound to them

There had been no preparation for the mission I am about to tell of, no visitation, nor any special prayer; and yet it pleased the Lord to give in this little village such an outpouring of His Spirit and dereat running together of the people, notwithstanding the difficulties of access to the church Some had to come several miles from the towns by road, some by sea, and others across a tidal river where , they had to clis, however, deterred or discouraged the which was urged at other tihts It was the day of the Lord's power, and He ; so much so, that in some places as suspended, and people ca, when I arrived, I found that the church would scarcely hold the people who bad gathered to hear the Word of God It was a ti, and we re four et ho toThis I did, and was surprised to find a nu, even at this early hour

There were too many to speak to individually, so I addressed the souls In the afternoon we had a still larger nuation; in this way the work continued, with three services a day throughout the week, acco the nueon, his wife and brother, and the wife of a respectable yeoe on the other side of the river, were converted to God Their rector was aed, and wondered by what process this was accomplished He attended an afternoon service, and was astonished to see so many people present on a week-day