The usual discreet somnolence of the chapel had been disturbed as by some indecorous but formidable awakener; the air was electric; anything might occur.  Ezra was astounded by the mere volume of the singing; never had he heard such singing.  At the end of the hymn the congregation sat down, hiding their faces in expectation.  The revivalist stood erect and terrible in the pulpit, no longer a shrewd, cheery man of the world, but the very mouthpiece of the wrath and mercy of God.  Ezra’s self-importance dwindled before that gaze, till, from a renowned magnate of the Five Towns, he became an item in the multitude of suppliants.  He profoundly wished he had never come.

‘Remember the hymn,’ said the revivalist, with austere emphasis: 

    ’"My richest gain I count but loss,
    And pour contempt on all my pride."’

The admirable histrionic art with which he intensified the consonants in the last line produced a tremendous effect.  Not for nothing was this man cerebrated throughout Methodism as a saver of souls.  When, after a pause, he raised his hand and ejaculated, ‘Let us pray,’ sobs could be heard throughout the chapel.  The Revival had begun.

At the end of a quarter of an hour Ezra Brunt would have given fifty pounds to be outside, but he could not stir; he was magnetized.  Soon the revivalist came down from the pulpit and stood within the Communion-rail, whence he addressed the nearmost part of the people in low, soothing tones of persuasion.  Apparently he ignored Ezra Brunt, but the man was convicted of sin, and felt himself melting like an icicle in front of a fire.  He recalled the days of his youth, the piety of his father and mother, and the long traditions of a stern Dissenting family.  He had backslidden, slackened in the use of the means of grace, run after the things of this world.  It is true that none of his chiefest iniquities presented themselves to him; he was quite unconscious of them even then; but the lesser ones were more than sufficient to overwhelm him.  Class-leaders were now reasoning with stricken sinners, and Ezra, who could not take his eyes off the revivalist, heard the footsteps of those who were going to the ‘inquiry-room’ for more private counsel.  In vain he argued that he was about to be ridiculous; that the idea of him, Ezra Brunt, a professed Wesleyan for half a century, being publicly ‘saved’ at the age of fifty-seven was not to be entertained; that the town would talk; that his business might suffer if for any reason he should be morally bound to apply to it too strictly the principles of the New Testament.  He was under the spell.  The tears coursed down his long cheeks, and he forgot to care, but sat entranced by the revivalist’s marvellous voice.  Suddenly, with an awful sob, he bent and hid his face in his hands.  The spectacle of the old, proud man helpless in the grasp of profound emotion was a sight to rend the heart-strings.

‘Brother, be of good cheer,’ said a tremulous and benign voice above him.  ‘The love of God compasseth all things.  Only believe.’