At last there came a courteous letter from his:  lordship, apologizing for having delayed his reply, adding that he “had mislaid the application of her, nominee; if she would oblige him with the name and address of this person, the appointment should be made out immediately.”  She gave my name and address, and sent his letter on to me.  I immediately wrote to his lordship, saying that I had not applied for the living, nor did I want it; but, for all that, I received by return post the nomination; and actually, it was to go back to the diocese of Exeter!  I did not think the Bishop would institute me, as I had committed a great many irregularities since his lordship had taken off my harness.  But he did.

Somehow I was unwilling to go to this living, but was put into it in spite of myself.  Here I had a good house, garden, and church, provided for me, with so much a year.  I wondered whether God was tired of me!  He had provided for me and my family during the past year wondrously, and I began to like “living by faith,” and trusting in Him only.  I have great doubts whether this appointment was altogether in accordance with God’s will.  Anyway, I had very little success or liberty in preaching, and could not settle down to work with any energy.

In the beginning of the summer, as usual, I had my attack of hay fever, which completely incapacitated me, in this place of much grass.  If I went to a town or the sea-side, it was well; but the moment I returned to the country I was ill again.  Altogether, it was a dull and distressing time; but God was preparing me for a special work.

CHAPTER 31

Hayle, 1857-58.

While meditating upon my present position, and wondering what I was to do next, I received an invitation to take charge of a district in another part of the county, near the sea, which suited my health.  Here there was a large population, which gave scope for energetic action; and, moreover, the people were careless and Godless, and, as such, were not preoccupied with other systems.  So I thought it was the very place in which I could begin to preach, and go on to prove the power of the Gospel.

With the invitation, I received an exaggerated account of the wickedness of the people, and was told that the thinking part of them leant towards infidelity, and that some of them were actually banded together in an infidel club.  All this, however, did not deter me from going, but rather stirred me up so much the more to try my lance against this gigantic foe.  I had learned before now to regard all difficulties in my work as the Lord’s, and not mine; and that, though they might be greater than I could surmount, they were not too great for Him.

There were two large iron factories here, besides shipping.  Many of the people employed were drawn from other parts of England, and were what the Cornish call “foreigners.”  They had no love for chapel services, or revivals, and no sympathy with Cornish views and customs; so not having a church to go to, they were left pretty much to themselves.