and ploughed up our deck with their shots. Men were being killed
on every side of me. I thought, now I shall see the King in His glory.
My soul was so happy, I expected every moment to be cut down and sent
into His presence; but not a shot touched me! I had not even a scratch;
and here I be, safe and sound, all through mercy!"

Thus, these three men, who made me at the time so unhappy, and disturbed
me to such a degree, turned out well, after all.

Since then, on several occasions, I have felt as discouraged in
preaching as I was that day; and though again and again I have said that
I will not heed it, I have nevertheless found it difficult to be unmoved
under this mysterious influence. I write this for the comfort and
consolation of others who are afflicted under similar circumstances,
that they may not be cast down by their feelings.

3. Mount Hawke

The next occasion was very different, and quite a contrast in results. I
was invited to a neighbouring parish, which formerly used to be united
with Perran at the time when I had sole charge of it. Here, on the
appointed Saturday afternoon, I found not fewer than three thousand
people assembled on the common. They had erected a kind of platform,
with a canvas awning, to shelter me from the wind, which always blows
with more or less violence in Cornwall, even when it is not raining.

There I stood and beheld this concourse of people, evidently full of
large expectation. I gave out the hymn--

"Oh for a thousand tongues, to sing
My great Redeemer's praise!"

This was heartily sung; and after prayer for a blessing, I announced my
text, and spoke from the fact, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Upon enforcing this as worthy of all acceptation, I
pressed the thought, that the Lord Jesus came more than eighteen hundred
years ago, and that is present still, and able to work greater than He
wrought then; for indeed He only began then to do and to teach what He
is doing and teaching continuously now.

A mighty power of the Spirit of the Lord came on the people, and several
hundreds fell upon their knees simultaneously, and many began to cry
aloud for mercy. The strange part was, that the power of the Lord
appeared to pass diagonally through the crowd, so that there was a lane
of people on their knees six or eight feet deep, banked up on either
side by others standing. It extended from the left-hand corner near me,
to the right-hand corner in the dista