1842.] 



BIBLE SOCIETY. 



47 



unusually glad if on any occasion we were allowed the right 

 hand of fellowship. As he still seemed uncomfortable, it struck 

 me that I might be in the way at tea ; so I asked him ; but he 

 said that he was master in his own house, etc., so I went into the 

 room. [He had pleasant conversation there with an Irish 

 clergyman reputed to be ' a flaming Evangelical/ who did not 

 suspect who he was, and who, when they came to the meeting, 

 was one of those who were urgent that he should go on the 

 platform.] As I did not want to proclaim bigotry, I was obliged 

 to tell them that Mr. S. would explain to them afterwards. 

 The speeches were very interesting and practical, and would 

 have seemed very liberal to those who were not behind the 

 scenes as I was. After the meeting, Mr. S. asked me to 

 supper ; but I refused, as I expected the people would want 

 to know why I did not speak • so I went down to the teetotal 

 meeting, and heard the end of a most interesting lecture by 

 one of the Christians. I felt my heart warm within me, as I 

 thought that here I could speak and be welcomed." 



On the following Wednesday, he attended the anniversary 

 of the Teetotal Society at Bury, to which he belonged, and 

 heard an interesting lecture by Mr. Howorth, which was after 

 wards printed. " On Thursday, I went over again to Bury to 

 meet Mr. Barker. Mr. Howorth had got over Mr. and Mrs. 

 J. J. Tayler ; but they did not seem to fit till, I suppose, Mr. 

 Tayler found out that it was the Mr. Barker, and then they 

 conversed in a most interesting manner. We went together to 

 the teetotal tea-party of about six hundred — a most animating 

 and delightful scene. The hymns were beautiful in the extreme. 

 Afterwards, the public were admitted, and the room thronged 

 with about a thousand people. Mr. Edmund Grundy was in 

 the chair. Some reformed men spoke very religiously, and 

 there were some resolutions passed, one of which I seconded ; 

 then Mr. Barker lectured in short, simple sentences, full ot 

 meaning, uttered with perfect simplicity, very little animation 



gruous to attempt to expel from a Bible Society the only believers who 

 are content to express their faith in the words of the Bible, or to deny the 

 name Evangelical to those who especially rested on the Evangelical 

 records! 



