“Our business was a large one and the assistants were none too many.  On Saturdays there was always great pressure.  Work often continued into the early hours of Sunday.  Now I had strong notions in my youth and for long after—­indeed, I entertain them now—­about the great importance of keeping the Sunday, or Sabbath as we always called it, clear of unnecessary work.

“For instance, I walked in my young days thousands of miles on the Sabbath, when I could for a trifling sum have ridden at ease, rather than use any compulsory labour of man or beast for the promotion of my comfort.  I still think we ought to abstain from all unnecessary work ourselves, and, as far as possible, arrange for everybody about us to have one day’s rest in seven.  But, as I was saying, I objected to working at my business on the Sabbath, which I interpreted to mean after twelve o’clock on Saturday night.  My relatives and many of my religious friends laughed at my scruples; but I paid no heed to them, and told my master I would not do it, though he replied that if that were so he would simply discharge me.  I told him I was willing to begin on Monday morning as soon as the clock struck twelve, and work until the clock struck twelve on Saturday night, but that not one hour or one minute of Sunday would I work for him or all his money.

“He kept his word, put me into the street, and I was laughed at by everybody as a sort of fool.  But I held out, and within seven days he gave in, and, thinking my scrupulous conscience might serve his turn he told me to come back again.  I did so, and before another fortnight had passed he went off with his young wife to Paris, leaving the responsibilities of a business involving the income and expenditure of hundreds of pounds weekly on my young shoulders.

“So I did not lose by that transaction in any way.  With no little suffering on four separate occasions, contrary to the judgments of all around me, I have thus left every friend I had in the world, and gone straight into what appeared positive ruin, so far as this world was concerned, to meet the demands of conscience.  But I have trusted God, and done the right, and in every separate instance I can now see that I have gained both for this world and the next as the result.

“During all the period of my lay preaching, both in Nottingham and London, I had to grapple with other difficulties.  What with one thing and another I had a great struggle at times to keep my head above the waters, and my heart alive with peace and love.  But I held on to God and His grace, and the never-failing joy that I experienced in leading souls to Christ carried me through.”

How can anybody fail to see how much more the masses are likely to be influenced by the preaching, no matter how defective oratorically, of one who has thus lived in the midst of them—­living, in fact, their very life of anxiety, suffering, and toil—­than by that of men, however excellent, who come to them with the atmosphere of the study, the college, or the seminary?