an office in the port of
Liverpool, but soon he set his heart on becoming a minister of the
Church of England. He applied for ordination to the Archbishop of
York, but not having the degree required by the rules of the
Establishment, he received through his Grace's secretary "the softest
refusal imaginable." The Archbishop had not had the advantage of
perusing Lord Macaulay's remarks on the difference between the policy
of the Church of England and that of the Church of Rome, with regard to
the utilization of religious enthusiasts. In the end Newton was
ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln, and threw himself with the energy of
a newborn apostle upon the irreligion and brutality of Olney. No
Carthusian's breast could glow more intensely with the zeal which is
the offspring of remorse. Newton was a Calvinist of course, though it
seems not an extreme one, otherwise he would probably have confirmed
Cowper in the darkest of hallucinations. His religion was one of
mystery and miracle, full of sudden conversions, special providences
and satanic visitations. He himself says that "his name was up about
the country for preaching people mad:" it is true that in the eyes of
the profane Methodism itself was madness; but he goes on to say
"whether it is owing to the sedentary life the women live here, poring
over their (lace) pillows for ten or twelve hours every day, and
breathing confined air in their crowded little rooms, or whatever may
be the immediate cause, I suppose we have near a dozen in different
degrees disordered in their heads, and most of them I believe truly
gracious people." He surmises that "these things are permitted in
judgment, that they who seek occasion for cavilling and stumbling may
have what they want." Nevertheless there were in him not only force,
courage, burning zeal for doing good, but great kindness, and even
tenderness of heart. "I see in this world," he said, "two heaps of
human happiness and misery; now if I can take but the smallest bit from
one heap and add it to the other I carry a point--if, as I go home, a
child has dropped a half-penny, and by giving it another I can wipe
away its tears, I feel I have done something." There was even in him a
strain, if not of humour, of a shrewdness which was akin to it, and
expressed itself in many pithy sayings. "If two angels came down from
heaven to execute a divine command, and one was appointed to conduct an
empire and the other to sweep a street