before I had ever seen them,
and He helped me to continue in prayer for them whilst with them.
This I judged was, in order that He might answer my request on their
behalf. 3, They were not like persons who had had the truth set
before them, and wilfully rejected it, but they had never had it set
before them. 4, The Lord, in His grace, enabled me to deal patiently
with them. They were deeply entangled in error, very deeply. Pressing
things hastily upon them, I knew, would only make matters worse; but
patiently hearing all their objections; meeting time after time over
the Word, and seeking the Lord's blessing in prayer on those meetings
both before and after, being willing not to press a point too much at
once, but giving time to the Holy Ghost to work upon their hearts;
dealing thus with them, even as the Lord had inclined my heart, I
judged that He would give me the desire of my heart, and deliver them
out of their fearful errors.

V. I cannot help noticing here the strange mistake under which the
religious public was with reference to my being at Stuttgart. It was
this: Some weeks after my arrival the report was spread, and widely
too, (for it was printed in one of the religious periodicals), that I
was a Missionary sent by the Baptists in England, to bring back the
Baptists in Wirtemberg to the State Church, as it was the view of the
Baptists in England that it was not wrong to be united with the State
Church. This having been stated in print, (though I knew not of it
till I was on the point of returning to England), my stay at
Stuttgart, I suppose, was rather liked by religious persons in
connexion with the State Church, and it is not at all unlikely that
that may have contributed to my being permitted to work quietly week
after week, and month after month, without the police in the least
interfering with me, though it not only was well known, that I was
there, but well known too what I was doing in the way of holding
meetings, etc. I recognise the hand of the Lord in allowing this
mistake to be made.

VI. For many weeks the number of those who frequented the meetings
was very small. Very few, besides those who were in communion with
us, attended them. The highly sectarian and exclusive spirit which
had been manifested by those brethren, who belonged to the Baptist
Church, was a great hindrance in the way; for it was naturally
supposed that we were of the same mind with them. But after nearly
five months had pas