1 64 MINISTRY AT WARRINGTON. [Chap. IV. 



There was " no great curiousnes, no great clerklines, no great 

 affectation of words, nor paynted eloquence ; . . . this was a 

 nipping sermon, a pinching sermon, a biting sermon — it had a 

 full bite — a rough sermon, and a sharp biting sermon." Like 

 the good Bishop, he declined to deal in abstractions, but testi- 

 fied to what he had seen and known ; and he spoke with the 

 authority of knowledge discerned by the "light of life." After 

 one of his sermons, "The Offence of Drinking," afterwards 

 printed, he notes : " Gave great offence to some, but clearness 

 of vision to others." He did his best to brighten the services 

 in the mouldering chapel with flowers and choir-music, but he 

 felt more at home when he preached in the spacious school- 

 room. There was a class whose needs he wanted to meet, who 

 would not come to hear him even there ; and his open-air 

 services at the Bridge Foot formed part of his regular Sunday 

 duty : there the working-men would gather round him, and 

 listen even through a shower of rain. He occasionally spoke 

 at Town End and elsewhere.* Some of his teachers or other 

 friends would accompany him, and their singing was the attrac- 

 tive call to the meeting. He distributed copies of an Oberlin 

 Tract (see p. no) which often bore reference to his address. 

 These tracts were generally only a page in length, and im- 

 parted vigorous moral or religious teaching, sometimes in the 

 form of a dialogue. 



His Sunday's work usually commenced with a teachers' 

 meeting, about eight a.m., followed by a short meeting for 

 prayer ; then the morning school and morning service ; after- 



* July 16, 1856, he writes : "As I had a chapel holiday, I took an 

 extra open-air meeting [beside Bridge Foot], and beat up fresh ground in a 

 district where several children's parents live. An audience had already 

 assembled to see two boys fight, who after I had separated them went, I 

 presume, to fight it out elsewhere. The people seemed pleased at my 

 coming, and I agreed to go again next Sunday. " 



f In addition to many Scriptural titles, they bore such as these : — 

 " Respectable Sinners ; " " What do you wish for ?" " Show Works and 

 Good Works;" " Outsiders ;" " Votes of Thanks where really due;" 

 " Let us alone ; " " The Fighting Way and the Loving Way ; " " Have you 

 a Right?" "A Few Plain Reasons for Plain Living ; " "Field Paths;" 

 "The Soul's Food;" "Who are the Brave?" "Buttermilk;" "Why 

 will ye die ?" etc., etc. 



