334 THE HIDDEN LIFE. 



and intelligence have brought you, under God's blessing, 

 into an honourable and independent position, in which 

 your influence may be considerable over the minds of many 

 thoughtless persons, and I think you are called upon 

 rather to maintain that position than to sacrifice it. Our 

 great want in all societies at present, is the absence or 

 rarity of spiritually-minded laymen, and of these the 

 influence is often greater than that of the clergy them- 

 selves. They mingle more easily in society and under 

 less formal restraints, and frequently obtain more credit 

 from the inconsiderate than the professed — I mean the 

 professional — servants of the Saviour. You should con- 

 sider the good, though it may be in a more limited way 

 than you desire, which you have it in your power to effect 

 even now, and the years which would require to elapse 

 before you could be called into a wider field of action, to 

 say nothing of the obstacles which may intervene to pre- 

 vent your being effectively so called at all. Perhaps I 

 have no business to enter into this matter ; but I know 

 you will take it in good part, as you cannot misconstrue 

 my motives." 



Mr Wilson exemplified his own maxims. With a dis- 

 position the reverse of aggressive, it would have been 

 impossible for him to burst the barriers and assail for- 

 malism or indifference as some conversational evangelists 



