Forest of Rossendale. 239 



year, he lived with his uncle at the public-house, but he had always 

 a strong aversion to the business, and this in a measure proved a 

 safeguard which prevented him from falling into the temptations 

 by which he was continually surrounded. A circumstance 

 occurred during his residence at this house, which exercised a 

 considerable influence on the events of his after life. Two persons 

 — one a Calvinist, the other an Arminian — engaged in a dispute 

 on the doctrines of the Scriptures. The subject of our sketch 

 became so interested in the controversy that he determined from 

 that time to read and study the Bible, that he might also become a 

 disputant. ." But, says Mr. Hargreaves, " I record it to my shame, 

 that I had no higher motive in searching the divine oracles. 

 Pilate's question, 'What is truth?' never once at that period 

 occurred to my mind." He read and studied to such purpose, 

 that he was able to take both sides of almost every contested 

 doctrinal question, and few were able to overcome him in debate. 

 In his riper years he seriously embraced the views of the Calvinists. 

 In 1 79 1 he married. Shorriy after this the Rev. Mr. Ogden, the 

 clergyman of St. John's, Bacup, which church Mr. Hargreaves 

 attended, began to urge him strenuously to preach; and this, after 

 two or three abortive efforts, he began to do in the outlying 

 districts around Bacup. 



Mr. Hargreaves in his notes gives an account of his first essay at 

 preaching, which is interesting. He had complied with the 

 earnest wish of Mr. Ogden to preach a sermon on a week night in 

 a cottage ifhere services were frequently held. " I thought," says 

 Mr. Hargreaves, " as the time approached that I could adopt a 

 plan whereby I might avoid preaching, and excuse myself from 

 guilt. I would go too late to the meeting, it would then be begun, 

 and I should escape. My wife went at the time. I followed in 

 about a quarter of an hour. On my way in the dark, and hardly 

 knowing what I was doing, I ran my head into the flank of a horse 

 at the door of a public-house, which I thought for the moment was 

 a sign for me to return home. When I reached the place of meeting, 

 I found to my chagrin that John Whitaker, Esq., of Broadclough, 



