A GLEANING FROM “THE BANK OF FAITH”

At my first beginning to speak in public, many professors and possessors of grace opposed me, as well as the world; some from a principle of jealousy; others from a principle of love, fearing I should run before I was sent; but they knew not the impulse that I was under. Of their opposition to me, however, I often complained to God in prayer, telling Him that I expected some degree of support and encouragement from His own children; instead of which I had nothing but opposition, and a weakening of my hands. Indeed, some kept themselves at a distance from me, and contradicted me at times, behaving quite insolently. In answer to my petitions, the Lord applied these words to my heart, and gave me a strong faith in them: “A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men,” (Prob. 18:16). At length I was led to see that I must be weaned from the church as well as from the world; and these words confirmed me in it, “Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the door of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom,” (Micah 7:5). “The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge.” (verse 4).

God took an effectual method to convince many of His people of His having called me to the work of the ministry; for it so happened that a certain professor had engaged a minister to come from London, and preach out of doors at Moulsey, on the Lord’s day morning. This was published at our meetings; and as I had never heard a sermon preached in the open air, I was determined to go. As he was to preach at six o’clock in the morning, I could hear him without encroaching upon those hours in which our little church met. About 3 o’clock on the Lord’s day morning I arose; but as soon as I was out of bed, (pleasing myself with hearing a sermon, and having an opportunity of trying my doctrine by the standard of a London preacher,) there came a voice to me with power, which I both heard and felt, saying, “You must preach out of doors today, and you must preach from this text, “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage,” (Matt. 22:9). I was much amazed at this sudden impulse, yet I thought it was from God. If, however, I happened to mention anything of this sort to some people, they would call it a delusion; but, notwithstanding this, God generally showed me afterwards that they themselves had little, if any, experimental knowledge of God.

I shall now relate every circumstance of this extraordinary affair, and leave the unprejudiced to judge whether it was God or Satan. I sat down to look out the text, but could not find it; I then got up, and went to a friend two miles off, who I knew had a little Concordance. I called him up, and asked him to let me look out such a text, which he accordingly did. I turned it down, put my Bible into my pocket, and went with him to hear the gentleman that was to come from London. When we came to the place I saw a great many people gathered together, and the table was set for the preacher to stand on — but he never came! So we waited until 7 o’clock, when every one of those who had formerly opposed me, begged me to get up and preach. I could not but admire the Divine conduct in this matter, that those who had opposed me were the very people who now invited me to preach. But here the cause of God was at stake, and there was now no answer in the mouth of any of those who had opposed me; therefore they forced that person up, whom they before had tried, by their conduct, to pull down. I complied with their request, and went trembling up to my station. As soon, however, as my heart began to get warm in the cause, all my fears left me. I now delivered my message from the text God gave me, and He was with me in the work. Then it was that some were ready to cry, “Hosanna!” However, they had so battered me about, that neither their applause nor their disapprobation had any weight with me. I often thought of those words spoken by Eliphaz to Job, “Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?” (Job 5:1) Turn? turn to none but God, for if the most upright among men is but “as a brier, and sharper than a thorn hedge,” we have no reason, like Abraham’s ram, to hang our horns in a bush, lest we fall a sacrifice. “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils,” says the Almighty, “for wherein is he to be accounted of?” But there was a young widow who came to hear me preach that first sermon; and Providence opened her heart, so that she attended to the things spoken by the Coalheaver, and heard the gospel constantly afterward. At last she was seized with violent convictions, being obliged to leave her place, and go home to Esher Workhouse, where a doctor was sent for to lay a blister on her head; not a proper remedy to draw out the bane of guilt, when the sting of death has so fatally envenomed the conscience! At times they found her quite delirious, and then she called earnestly on the Lord Jesus Christ. They then shook her, and abused her for praying, and declared her mad; and when they found she had been among the Methodists, it was easily accounted for; therefore they handled her accordingly. But when she got a little better, she sent for me to come and pray by her, which I accordingly did; and then she told me of their cruel usage to her. I spoke to my wife about it, and we borrowed a bed, and got her home to our house. My dame nursed her body, and I tried to nurse her soul; soon after which she got well in body, and happy in mind. Then she took a lodging, worked for her bread, and continued to sit under my ministry for about six years. At last she fell into a deep decline, and soon took to her bed; for two or three days before her death, she was violently tempted and distressed, even beyond measure. After this she came forth from that dark cloud, shining like the rising sun, and continued in these blessed rays of glory till she closed her eyes in death, launching forth into eternity in all the triumph of a gospel conqueror.

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