who had no sympathy with me;
but he seemed glad to get any one to come and work amongst such a rough,
and in some respects unmanageable, set. He had bought a chapel from the
Primitive Methodists for Divine service, and had erected schools for
upwards of three hundred children. These he offered me as my ground of
operation, promising, with a written guarantee, that if I succeeded, he
would build me a church, and endow it with all the tithes of that
portion of the parish.

Here was a field of labour which required much prayer and tact, as well
as energetic action. In accordance with Scriptural teaching, "I
determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified." I made
up my mind that I would not begin by having temperance addresses for
drunkards, or lectures on the Evidences of Christianity for the infidel,
but simply with preaching the Gospel.

One thing that simplified my work very much was the fact, that the
people were spiritually dead. I used to tell them, that in this free
country every man is accounted innocent till he is proved to be guilty,
but that in the Bible every man is guilty before God till he is
pardoned, and dead till he is brought to life. In one sense it does not
matter very much whether a man is an infidel, a drunkard, or anything
else, if he is dead in trespasses and sins.

It is of very little consequence in what coloured raiment a corpse is
shrouded; it remains a corpse still.

Taking this position positively, I avoided much religious controversy,
to the disappointment of many eager disputants, who longed to ventilate
their views. 'I told them plainly, that whether they were, right or
wrong, my business was with the salvation: of souls, and my one desire
was to rescue the lost: by bringing' them to Christ.

Hitherto I had been to places where the Lord had previously prepared the
hearts of the people, and therefore it had been my joy to see a revival
spring up, as if spontaneously; that is, without the ordinary
preparation by the people of the place. These extraordinary
manifestations of God's power and love; and they showed me what He could
and do. Now that I was somewhat more intelligent on the subject, He sent
me forth to prepare and work for similar results.

Hayle was to all appearances a very barren soil, and the people I had to
labour amongst were greater and mightier than myself. They already had
possession of the ground, and were perfectly content with their own way.
Moreover