“But at night God helped me to preach in such a way that many came
     out, and fourteen names were taken of those who really seemed
     satisfactory.  It was, indeed, a melting, moving time.

“I was kneeling, talking to a Penitent, when somebody touched me on the shoulder, and said, ’Here is a lady who has come to seek Salvation.  Her son came to hear you at Spalding, and was induced to seek the Saviour, and now she has come to hear you, and she wants Salvation, too.”  The Lord had mercy upon her, and she went away rejoicing.

“At Swineshead Bridge—­the very name gives some idea of the utterly rural character of the population—­I was to preach on three successive evenings, in the hope of promoting a Revival there.  Many things seemed to be against the project; but the Lord was for us.  Two people came out on the Monday evening, and God saved them both.  This raised our faith and cheered our spirits, especially as we knew that several more souls were in distress.

“On the Tuesday the congregation was better.  The news had spread that the Lord was saving, and that seldom fails to bring a crowd wherever it may be.  That evening the word was with power, and six souls cried for mercy.  At the earnest solicitations of the people, I decided to stay the remainder of the week, and urged them to pray earnestly, with the result that many more sought and found Salvation, and the little Society was nearly doubled.

“On the Saturday, just before I started home on the omnibus, a plain, unsophisticated Christian came and said, ’O sir, let me have hold of your hand.’  When he had seized it between both his, with tears streaming down his face, he said, ’Glory be to God that ever you came here.  My wife before her conversion was a cruel persecutor, and a sharp thorn in my side.  She would go home from the Prayer Meeting before me, and as full of the Devil as possible; she would oppose and revile me; but now, sir, she is just the contrary, and my house, instead of being a little Hell has become a little Paradise.’  This was only one of a number of cases in which husbands rejoiced over wives, and wives over husbands, for whom they had long prayed, being saved.

“I shall always remember with pleasure the week I spent at Swineshead Bridge, because I prayed more and preached with more of the spirit of expectation and faith, and then saw more success than in any previous week of my life.  I dwell upon it as, perhaps, the week which most effectually settled my conviction for ever that it was God’s purpose by my using the simplest means to bring souls into liberty, and to break into the cold and formal state of things to which His people only too readily settle down.”

For the sake of readers who have never seen Meetings such as The General for so many years conducted, it seems at once necessary to explain what is meant by the terms “seeking mercy” or “Salvation,” the “cries for mercy,” and, above all, the “Mercy-Seat,” or “Penitent-Form,” which appear so constantly in all reports of his work.