62 



MINISTRY AT STAND. Chap. III. 



was not to my taste, though I can bear with it now, which I 

 could not once. I got back to bed at 1.30 ; and, after six 

 hours' sleep, got up again and walked to Radcliffe on business 

 before breakfast, calling on all the people by the way to wish 

 them Happy New Years. Some I caught in bed ; one was 

 having some drink, so he seemed ashamed. To-day, I have 

 been singing over my tunes and your hymns, and am now going 

 to a teetotal tea-party at Bury." This proved as large and as 

 successful as the one already described ; and he had an in- 

 * teresting walk home with a mechanic who belonged to a family 

 that used to earn ^10 a week regularly, but was kept poor 

 through drink. 



He had gradually arrived at a conviction which two years 

 before he had thought a " fad," and which he was aware would 

 still seem so to others, viz. that he could not, in remembrance 

 of Christ, drink that which led multitudes to forsake Christ ; 

 so of the Lord's Supper (January, 1844), he records : " Found 

 it my duty to refuse taking the wine. I stopped some little time 

 in prayer, and made a very few remarks about doing it in the 

 spirit." At the end of the month he preached on the subject, 

 but with some discomfort : " I think I am right, but when every 

 one is against me, one can't but suspect one's self. However, I 

 hope, at any rate, it can do no harm, and I don't think it can." 

 The next Sunday he writes : " We used the unfermented wine 

 for the first time, to my great delight and comfort." This was 

 in accordance with the following resolution, that had been 

 passed unanimously, January 31: " That since it appears 

 that some members of the Stand Religious Society have a 

 conscientious objection to the use of fermented wine at the 

 Lord's Supper, it is expedient that the unfermented wine be 

 henceforth employed in that ordinance." 



On January 14, " there was an evening service, at the re- 

 quest of the teetotalers ; and F. Howorth was invited to preach. 

 The chapel looked so pretty outside, lighted up ; and a great 

 deal more beautiful inside, for there was a noble gathering of 

 persons from every congregation in the neighbourhood, and 

 several Secularists. The chapel was very full, and we had 



