Then mounting, he started off, and had not gone more than a few yards, when, suddenly pulling up, he turned, and placing his hand on the back of his horse, called out, “Haslam, God stop the man who is wrong!” I answered, “Amen,” and off he trotted.

On the Friday following he broke a blood-vessel in his throat or chest, and has never preached since.  His life was in danger for Several weeks, though in course of time he recovered, but I have heard that he has never been able to speak above a whisper.  God has most undoubtedly stopped him; while He has permitted me to preach for the last nine-and-twenty years, on the average more than six hundred times a year.

From that time I began to preach the Gospel, and was not ashamed to declare everywhere what the Lord had done for my soul.  Thus from personal experience I have been enabled to proclaim the Word, both as a “witness” and a “minister.”

I, who before that time used to be so weak, that I could not preach for more than fifteen or twenty minutes for three consecutive Sundays without breaking down, was now able to do so each day, often more than once, and three times every Sunday.

CHAPTER 8

The Revival, 1851-54.

In the providence of God, my conversion was the beginning of a great revival work in my parish, which continued without much interruption for nearly three years.  At some periods during that time there was a greater power of the divine presence, and consequently more manifest results, than at others; but all along there were conversions of sinners or restoration of backsliders every week—­indeed, almost every day.

I was carried along with the torrent of the work, far over and beyond several barriers of prejudice which had been in my mind.  For instance, I made a resolution that if I ever had a work of God in my parish, it should be according to rule, and that the people should not be excited into making a noise, as if God were deaf or afar off; also, that I would prevent their throwing themselves into extraordinary states of mind and body, as though it were necessary that they should do so in order to obtain a blessing.  I intended to have everything in most beautiful and exemplary order, and that all should be done as quietly and with as much precision as the working of a machine.  No shouting of praises, no loud praying, no hearty responding; and, above all, no extravagant crying for mercy, such as I had witnessed in Mr. Aitken’s parish.

But notwithstanding my prudence and judicious resolutions, “the wind blew as it listed; we heard the sound thereof, but could not tell whence it came, or whither it went” (John 3:  8).  In spite of all my prejudices, souls were quickened and born of the Spirit.  I was filled with rejoicing, and my heart overflowed with joy to see something doing for the Lord.