being taken off
by the preaching of the gospel" from his duties as deacon, another member
was appointed in his room. His appointment to the ministry was not long
delayed. After "some solemn prayer with fasting," he was "called forth
and appointed a preacher of the word," not, however, so much for the
Bedford congregation as for the neighbouring villages. He did not
however, like some, neglect his business, or forget to "show piety at
home." He still continued his craft as a tinker, and that with industry
and success. "God," writes an early biographer, "had increased his
stores so that he lived in great credit among his neighbours." He
speedily became famous as a preacher. People "came in by hundreds to
hear the word, and that from all parts, though upon sundry and divers
accounts,"--"some," as Southey writes, "to marvel, and some perhaps to
mock." Curiosity to hear the once profane tinker preach was not one of
the least prevalent motives. But his word proved a word of power to
many. Those "who came to scoff remained to pray." "I had not preached
long," he says, "before some began to be touched and to be greatly
afflicted in their minds." His success humbled and amazed him, as it
must every true man who compares the work with the worker. "At first,"
he says, "I could not believe that God should speak by me to the heart of
any man, still counting myself unworthy; and though I did put it from me
that they should be awakened by me, still they would confess it and
affirm it before the saints of God. They would also bless God for
me--unworthy wretch that I am--and count me God's instrument that showed
to them the way of salvation." He preached wherever he found
opportunity, in woods, in barns, on village greens, or even in churches.
But he liked best to preach "in the darkest places of the country, where
people were the furthest off from profession," where he could give the
fullest scope to "the awakening and converting power" he possessed. His
success as a preacher might have tempted him to vanity. But the
conviction that he was but an instrument in the hand of a higher power
kept it down. He saw that if he had gifts and wanted grace he was but as
a "tinkling cymbal." "What, thought I, shall I be proud because I am a
sounding brass? Is it so much to be a fiddle?" This thought was, "as it
were, a maul on the head of the pride and vainglory" which he found
"easily blown up at the applause and commendation o