any times to take his life.
Their savage ignorance would have unnerved and discouraged a less
powerful personality, but this man seemed to be buoyed up by his
belief that it was God's work and he was only the instrument in
carrying it out. He was often warned of the violence that was
threatened towards him, but the intimation never disturbed his
inherent belief that no earthly power could break through the cordon
that protected him; and so he continued his work, temporal and
spiritual, undisturbed by the threats of a class whom he was
determined to civilize, and, "with God's help, Christianize." The
process was long, the methods of resistance wicked.

Jimmy Stone, one of the worst scoundrels in the district, had laboured
to persecute Turnbull, and to break up the meetings for months past.
He tyrannized over men and brutally maltreated women, and his
blasphemy was terrible to listen to. It was during one of his
outbursts of wrath against the "Ranter" preacher that he was suddenly
staggered by Turnbull going up to him, laying his hand on his
shoulder, and admonishing him to refrain from such shocking conduct.
He attempted to seize the preacher by the throat, and I fear at this
juncture Turnbull forsook for a little his usual attitude of
equanimity, for before the giant knew where he was he lay on the
ground, stunned by a left-hander. The preacher was an awkward customer
to deal with, and it would seem as though he did not entirely trust to
Divine interposition when hands were laid on him. His tormentor lay, a
humiliated heap, at his feet. Never in Jimmy's life had any one dared
to resent his attacks in this way. He could not understand it, and was
overcome more by superstition and a fear of Turnbull's reputed
supernatural aids than by real fear of his physical powers. Turnbull
ordered the bully to stand up, and warned him against experimenting
on strangers. He then, in quaint, old-world phraseology, the outcome
of much deep reading of Butler, Baxter, and Jeremy Taylor, and wholly
without cant or affectation, went on to say--

"I intend to let you off lightly on this occasion, but if I hear of
you practising any injustice or in any way giving annoyance to your
neighbours again, I shall deem it my duty to teach you a salutary
lesson. Now, bear in mind what I say to you; and remember that the
Almighty may visit you with His wrath. It may be that He will send to
your house affliction, and even make it desolate by taking som