5* 



MINISTRY AT STAND. [Chap. III. 



made a branch society at Ringley, a very drunken place, on 

 the way to Bolton. I went every week, and spoke in the 

 open air. We have already got about fifty members, includ- 

 ing three or four great drunkards, and a policeman who is very 

 active. We now meet in two small rooms, and the speaker 

 stands between them. I am going there to-night. Also we are 

 forming a branch juvenile society, in our Sunday school, and 

 have already got both superintendents and several teachers 

 and children ; so, you see, we are pretty lively. I feel it an 

 honour to be connected with this band of mechanics, who are 

 doing so much good. We have got over all the divinity 

 students, except one, and several lays. ... J. A. Nichols has 

 introduced it into his mill and the Sunday school, and has been 

 the means of reforming a young surgeon who was very clever 

 and amiable, but through drink had been obliged to be sepa- 

 rated from his family. This alone is enough to make him 

 happy till death — and much longer. All Travers's class took 

 the pledge from Father Mathew [who had visited Manchester 

 that summer]. We had a festival at the RadclirTe wakes. The 

 drinkers had races on the Sunday, and we had a perpetual 

 camp-meeting all day. You would have been amused if you 

 had seen me (after my own services were over) standing on a 

 great show-place with pictures of great beasts, and stalls of fruit, 

 etc., shouting like mad to the crowds of people. I took as a 

 text Paul's spirit being stirred when he saw the whole city 

 given to idolatry. The next day we had a procession and tea- 

 party, Mr. E. Grundy from Bury in the chair. In the midst of 

 all this, it is very painful to see those one loves still going on 

 in drunkenness. In addition to all this work, I have a Latin 

 pupil twice a week ; and, after Christmas, I expect to have two 

 young ladies three days a week. I have undertaken this that I 

 might have some money for the school-room. I have very 

 little time to write sermons, and often preach extempore in the 

 afternoon." 



A few weeks later, he writes : " I find ' there's no such thing 

 as moderation,' as the teetotal advocates say; it is all an over- 

 head-and-ears kind of world we live in. . . . When I got your 



