Notwithstanding the schoolmaster’s opposition, he still came to church, and was very attentive to the sermons, taking copious notes.  One Sunday, when I had been preaching on the text, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” he was heard to say, “Thank God, I am not cut done yet;” and then he proceeded for the first time to the after-meeting in the school-room.

When I entered I saw him low down on his knees, and said how happy I was to see him there.  “Oh,” he cried, “I fear there is no mercy—­the sentence is surely gone forth against me, ‘Cut him down! cut him down!’” And then the poor man howled aloud in his distress.  The people prayed for him with shouts of thanksgiving, while he threw himself about in agony of mind, and made a great noise, which only drew still louder acclamations from the people.  In the midst of this tremendous din he found peace, and rejoiced with the others in unmistakable accents, and as loud as the loudest.  Evidently he was not ashamed or afraid of excitement and noise now.

While he was thus engaged I went round to his house to see his wife, and tell her the news.  I found her sitting on the stairs in profound dismay, as if some dreadful calamity had happened.  She was literally dumb with fear and astonishment.  When she could speak, she said, “What will happen to him now?  Will he die?  What will become of us?” When I assured her that her husband was only just beginning to live, she said, “Must we be Dissenters now?  Oh, what will become of us?” Her sister, who was staying with her, became very angry at hearing of the master’s conversion.  Finding that I could not do much with these two, I left them, and returned to the schoolroom, where the people were even more uproarious and happy than before; several others having also found pardon and peace.

The Sunday after, the master was seen moving out of church as quickly as he could; and when he reached the churchyard he was observed to run, and then leap over a wall, and next over a hedge into a field.  They could not hear him, but he was shouting all the time as well as running.  He afterwards said that the Prayer-book was full of meaning; it was like a new book to him; and that if he had stayed in church, he should have disturbed the whole congregation.  He became a very earnest Christian, and took much pains and interest in the religious instruction of the children.  There were several revivals in the school while he was there, and many of the children were converted.  It was not long before he was able to rejoice over the conversion of his wife, and her sister also.