regation.

The Earl of Falmouth, who laid the stone, contributed a thousand pounds
towards the edifice; his mother gave three hundred pounds for a peal of
bells; and others of the gentry who were present contributed; so that
upwards of eighteen hundred pounds was promised that day. Just twelve
months after, July 20, 1848, the same company, with many others, and the
Bishop of Exeter (Phillpotts) came to consecrate the "beautiful church."

In the meantime, between the stone-laying and the consecration, the
Parsonage house had been built, and, more than that, it was even
papered, furnished, and inhabited! Besides all this, there was a garden
made, and a doorway, after an ecclesiastical mode, leading into the
churchyard, with this inscription over it:--

"Be true to Church,
Be kind to poor,
O minister, for evermore."

In this church there were super-altars, candles, triptych, and also a
painted window; organ, choir, and six bells; so that for those days it
was considered a very complete thing. "The priest of Baldhu," with his
cassock and square cap, was quite a character in his small way. He
preached in a surplice, of course, and propounded Church tactics, firmly
contending for the Church teaching. The Wesleyans and others had their
distinctive tenets, the Church must have hers: they had their members
enrolled, the Church must have hers; therefore he would have a "guild,"
with the view of keeping his people together. Outwardly there was an
esprit de corps, and the parishioners came to church, and took an
interest in the proceedings; but it was easy to see that their hearts
were elsewhere. Still I went on, hoping against hope, "building from the
top" without any foundation, teaching people to live before they were
born!

CHAPTER 6

The Awakening, 1848-51.

He more earnestly I wrought among the people, and the better I knew
them, the more I saw that the mere attachment to the Church, and
punctual attendance at the services or frequency of Communion, was not
sufficient. I wanted something deeper. I wanted to reach their hearts in
order to do them good.

Whether this desire sprang up in the ordinary progress by which God was
imperceptibly leading me, or from a story I heard at a clerical meeting,
I know not--perhaps from both. My mind was evidently as ground prepared
to receive the warning. The story was about a dream a clergyman had. He
thought the Judgment day was come, and that there was, as it were, a
great vi