tihxaxy of trhe tl^eolo^ical ^tmxnary 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 The ^ state of the 
 Rev, John B. Wiedin^er 
 
 BX 6495 .M4 A3 
 
 Meyer, F. B. 1847-1929 
 
 The bells of Is 
 
THE BELLS OF IS 
 
Rev. Frederick B. Meyer, B. A. 
 
 " Few books of recent years are better adapted to instruct atid 
 help Christians than those of this author. He is a man ' mighty 
 in the Scriptures.' "— D. L. Moody. 
 
 The Bells of Is ; or, Voices of Human Need and Sorrow. Echoes 
 from my early pastorates. With portrait. i2mo, cloth $.75 
 
 Prayers for Heart and Home. Morning and Evening Devotions 
 for a Month. 8vo, flexible cloth 75 
 
 Old Testament Heroes. i2mo, cloth, each i.oo 
 
 Jeremiah: Priest and Prophet. {In preparation.) 
 
 Joshua and the Land of Promise. {New.) 
 
 Moses, the Servant of God. 
 
 Joseph: Beloved— Hated— Exalted. 
 
 Israel: A Prince w^ith God. 
 
 Abraham ; or, The Obedience of Faith 
 
 Elijah and the Secret of His Pow^er. 
 
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 Calvary to Pentecost. (A'trTc.) 
 
 Key Words to the Inner Life. 
 
 The Future Tenses of the Blessed Life 
 
 The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life. 
 
 The Shepherd Psalm. 
 
 Christian Living. 
 
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^ /3. yruLu^jiA. 
 
MAR 23 ]948 . 
 
 THE BELLS OF 
 
 OR 
 
 VOICES OF HUMAN NEED AND SORROW 
 
 JEcboes from mg JEaclg 
 Ipastoratea 
 
 BY 
 
 F. B.I^EYER, B. A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "JOSH'JA: AND THE LAND OF PROMISE," "THE WAY INTO THE 
 HOLIEST," "CHRISTIAN LIVING," ETC., ETC., ETC. 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature 
 
Copyright, 1894, 
 By Fleming H. Revell Company. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 /^NE of the most popular legends of Brittany 
 ^-^ is that relating to an imaginary town called 
 Is (pronounced Iss), which is supposed to have 
 been swallowed up by the sea at some unknown 
 time. There are several places along the coast 
 which are pointed out as the site of this imagi- 
 nary city, and the fishermen have many strange 
 tales to tell of it. 
 
 According to them the tips of the spires of the 
 churches may be seen in the hollow of the waves 
 when the sea is rough, while during a calm the 
 music of their bells ringing out the hymn appro- 
 priate to the day rises above the waters. 
 
 Similarly, as it has always seemed to me, amid 
 the submerged masses, deep down at the bottom 
 of the ocean of human life, there are yearnings 
 and desires for a better life, that ring sadly and 
 
 S 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 perpetually. It has been the aim of my life to 
 listen for these, and where I have detected them, 
 to present the only answer — the love of God in 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Some of the ways in which I sought to do this 
 during my Leicester life are narrated in this book, 
 which serves to show what may be done in this 
 direction amid the cares of a busy pastorate. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. A Birthday Reverie 9 
 
 II. Melbourne Hall, Leicester 20 
 
 III. Launching Out 28 
 
 IV. At the Jail Gates 37 
 
 V. My First Case 45 
 
 VI. Our System of Relief 57 
 
 VII. My Work as Banker 65 
 
 VIII. A Brace of Fowls 72 
 
 IX. Prisoners' Aid Societies 78 
 
 X. My Relations with the Publicans 86 
 
 XI. " Providence House " 95 
 
 XII. I Become a Fire-wood Merchant 103 
 
 XIII. Various Methods in 
 
 XIV. The Streets 119 
 
 XV. " The Cathedral " 127 
 
 XVI. On the Race-Course 135 
 
THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 ^ i3irtl)ba2 Eeuerie 
 
 The Bells of Is are ringing 
 
 Far down my heart to-day ; 
 They call me to the memory 
 
 Of scenes long passed away — 
 Of days almost forgotten, 
 
 Of feelings long passed by — 
 Sweet as the scent of flowers 
 
 We loved in infancy." 
 
 Clifford Harrison. 
 
 WE can never calculate how much we owe to 
 other people. It would be easier to count 
 the threads of the warp which cross and inter- 
 weave themselves with the woof than to analyze 
 and give due weight to the various influences 
 which, from childhood upwards, have gone to 
 make us what we are. And sometimes one falls 
 into a kind of reverie, halting for a little on the 
 hill of life and looking back or down; remem- 
 bering the way by which one has been led, and 
 
 9 
 
lO THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 recalling the many faces and voices, once so 
 familiar, which have faded away, never again to 
 be renewed. Such a reverie often befalls one on 
 the day which, from our earliest childhood, has 
 been invested with sacred memories as the day 
 of birth. 
 
 Into some such reverie I fell the other day, 
 traveling back and back. Will it be deemed too 
 great an obtrusion of self if I yield to the kind 
 importunity which insists on placing my portrait 
 in the frontispiece, and demands these broken 
 memories of the past? 
 
 It is a great thing to give a child a sunny back- 
 ground to its life ; as sunny as possible, so that 
 whatever may be the shadows of after life, it 
 may ever have a corridor of memory, a picture- 
 gallery, into which it may turn for refreshment 
 and stimulus. And how wonderful is that Provi- 
 dence which has ordained that time, which dims 
 the brightest colors that ever left the painter's 
 palette, only suffices to touch the lines of early 
 life into more lasting and vivid beauty. 
 
 Happy indeed was the setting of my early life ; 
 one of the freshest memories of which seems to 
 be long summer days spent on Clapham Com- 
 mon, when the gorse covered it from side to side, 
 and the bracken grew high enough to hide the 
 slight, childish figure that delighted to throw it- 
 self with wild abandonment into its midst. What 
 
A BIRTHDAY REVERIE II 
 
 would not one give to have days of the same 
 length as those used to be, spent in saihng boats 
 across those mimic seas, or in absorbing games 
 of cricket, as exciting as any that ever drew 
 crowds to Lord's. The deep shade of those 
 spreading chestnuts through the sultry hours of 
 noon ; the long drives through Streatham and 
 Dulwich, when those suburbs were uninvaded by 
 the modern terrace or the intersecting railways ; 
 my father's home, with its long garden and pad- 
 dock ; and, perhaps more to me than anything 
 else, the house at the end of the long walk, 
 where Macaulay wrote his history, and where 
 my maternal grandparents lived. 
 
 It is pleasant, in looking back over the years, 
 to be unable to recall one moment's misunder- 
 standing with those beloved parents, who are 
 now, together with some sweet younger children, 
 in the presence of the King. One long pathway 
 of unclouded sunshine stretches away from the 
 shore of the present over the ocean expanse of 
 the past. It is impossible to be thankful enough 
 to my gentle, lovely mother for the careful drill- 
 ing in Scripture which was her habit wuth us all. 
 To this is owing a familiarity with the Bible 
 which has been of inestimable value as the basis 
 of after study. It was her regular practice to 
 gather us around her on each Lord's Day morn- 
 ing for the searching of Bible references, and 
 
12 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 for reading books bearing directly on Scripture. 
 And how can we who shared in them ever for- 
 get the happy hours each Sunday afternoon, 
 when we gathered around the piano, and sang 
 hymn after hymn ; our childish voices gathering 
 strength as they were led and supported by that 
 noble bass voice of my father, which was like an 
 organ in the richness of its tones! It was not 
 what they said, for they spoke very little directly 
 to us ; but what they were, and what they ex- 
 pected us to be, that seemed insensibly to form 
 and mold our characters. 
 
 My grandfather was a successful city merchant, 
 full of sound common sense ; a strong man, who 
 had made for himself a position of influence and 
 honor in the business world. But the light of 
 that home was the saintly lady, whose daily walk 
 has been described, by one who knew her well, 
 as one of close intercourse with God in Christ 
 during nearly fourscore years. Her early life 
 was spent among the Friends, a society which is 
 remarkable for the high and noble character of 
 its women. This early training was never lost 
 on her ; it gave a quiet dignity and charm to her 
 character, an independence of outward formu- 
 laries, a certain strength and spirituality of tone 
 which made her unlike most others. And in her 
 closing years it came back to her with renewed 
 power, when, no longer able to attend the out- 
 
A BIRTHDAY REI/'ERIE 1 3 
 
 ward ordinances of God's house, she would retire 
 into the temple of the inner life, ever open to all 
 devout souls, and there hold fellowship with God 
 beneath the direct teaching and enlightenment 
 of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 She was not only a- woman of great spiritual- 
 ity, but of great strength of intellect. Few could 
 write sweeter poetry than hers, and every event 
 in the history of the great family of children and 
 grandchildren seemed to awake some response 
 from her lyric muse. It was no small privilege 
 for the young lad to be allowed to sit for long 
 hours beside her, as she poured into his heart the 
 noble thoughts which were ever welling up within 
 her soul, and which, especially in the early morn- 
 ing, would be so fresh and vigorous. Besides all 
 this, she had a special faculty of making other 
 people's troubles her own, and of living in their 
 lives; never thinking of self, but ever eager to 
 say or do something to alleviate anxiety, and 
 promote their comfort. In her heart there was 
 a true spark of the enthusiasm of humanity. 
 
 Then came school-life. First, the daily trudge 
 along the interminable Acre Lane to the school 
 kept by my excellent relative, Samuel Wilkins, Esq. 
 Then a year or two of tuition by Mr. Peto and his 
 son, in the house which, with its ob,servatory, is 
 so prominent an object on entering Brighton Sta- 
 tion, but preeminently the Brighton College. 
 
14 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 We were living at Brighton then, having re- 
 moved for the benefit of my sister's heahh ; my 
 father making the daily journey to London. It 
 was therefore possible for me to sleep at home, 
 and so combine the holy influences of the home 
 with the public spirit, the esprit de corps, the in- 
 spiration and stimulus of a great public school. 
 At first the tenderly nurtured lad shrank from 
 association with so many strong and boisterous 
 spirits. But ah, how can we overestimate the 
 influence of our pubhc schools in enlarging the 
 mind, in rubbing off ugly corners, in giving a 
 sense of independence and self-reliance to the 
 youth of England ? Even now as I write, I re- 
 call the excitement of the great cricket matches ; 
 the frays with roughs and other schoolboys, with 
 whom we had perpetual feud, culminating in the 
 uproarious proceedings of November 5th; the 
 paper-chases over the downs; the athletic sports, 
 and the prodigious training that preceded them ; 
 the postage-stamp fever; the fossil furore; the 
 expeditions with choice spirits over the rocks and 
 along the cliflfs when the tide was down; the 
 opening of the chapel and the daily service. Oh, 
 happy, happy days, whose traces will linger ever, 
 as the ripple marks of ocean wave upon the soft 
 marl, which is now stamped with them forever! 
 
 But, amid all this boyish life, there was rising 
 up within the heart, like a fountain from un- 
 
A BIRTHDAY REVERIE I 5 
 
 known depths, the steady resolve, as yet hardly 
 realized, and never breathed, that the life was to 
 be inspired by the one absorbing purpose of the 
 ministry of Jesus Christ. Among my mother's 
 papers I found recently some early attempts at 
 sermons, and each Sunday night my proclivities 
 found expression in the little service at which the 
 servants attended. The hands that reached down 
 out of heaven, molding men, had already com- 
 menced to form a vessel, which in after days He 
 was going in marvelous condescension to use. 
 
 When yet about the age of fifteen, my father's 
 losses in business necessitated our leaving the 
 beautiful home in which we lived, and returning 
 to London ; but this was perhaps one of the most 
 important factors in my life. It brought out all 
 the lad's self-restraint in order to save needless 
 expense ; it took away the temptation to ex- 
 pect from others a deference due rather to wealth 
 than worth ; it threw me into close society with 
 my beloved relatives, Mr. and Mrs. George Glad- 
 stone, and the cultivated circle which gathered 
 round their home. The beloved Baldwin Brown 
 was for months an occupant of that same house ; 
 Dr. Gladstone, with his wide knowledge of the 
 scientific world, and his own researches into the 
 worlds of chemistry and light, and many others, 
 came and went, and opened up new and wider 
 thoughts of the great world around. Those visits 
 
1 6 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 to the meetings of the British Association ; those 
 evenings at the concerts of the Sacred Harmonic 
 Society ; those talks of books, and experiments, 
 and fossils, and science. How invaluable all these 
 influences! That surely is the true method of 
 education which seeks not to destroy but to ful- 
 fill ; and which so awakens the interest of the 
 young expanding mind to the beautiful and true, 
 that there is little foothold left for the false and 
 hateful. 
 
 At last the choice must be made for the com- 
 ing life, and there was but one answer from the 
 young heart ; but it was yet further tested, under 
 the advice of Dr. Brock, whose ministry we had 
 attended during our former stay at Clapham, and 
 who had not a little to do with giving the first 
 direction toward the formation of the earliest life- 
 purpose in the little boy who sat on the book- 
 box of the great corner pew. And so more than 
 two years were passed in a city counting-house, 
 in sampling tea, in learning book-keeping, and in 
 acquiring habits of punctuality, exact attention 
 to details, and a knowledge of the life of young 
 men. Should any read these words who are 
 contemplating the service of the ministry, let 
 them by all means graduate in the college of city 
 life, and study attentively the great book of 
 human nature. It is impossible to preach to 
 men unless you know rhen. 
 
A BIRTHDAY REVERIE I 7 
 
 But all this time, the one desire of the city 
 clerk was to know the will of God. Biographies 
 were eagerly read, and experiences compared 
 with his own. The mind constantly offered to 
 the Divine Spirit that he would impress it with 
 his will. Repeated conferences were held with 
 the late thoughtful and devoted David Jones, 
 pastor of the church at Streatham, and with 
 younger men. And ever and again the oppor- 
 tunities of public service would be greedily 
 caught at, whether to address the assembled 
 Sunday-school, or to exhort a few old women 
 crowded in some narrow cottage, whose blessings 
 were sweeter than the fragrance of spring flowers 
 to the young evangelist. 
 
 At last the probation time was over, and 
 Regent's Park College entered, with inestimable 
 advantage from the accurate scholarship of Dr. 
 Angus, and the course of study prescribed for 
 the graduates of the London University, attend- 
 ing the ministry of Rev. Thomas Jones, and gen- 
 erally preaching once or twice each Lord's Day. 
 
 My first charge was at Richmond, Surrey, 
 where, during the latter part of my college 
 course, I reared the church, afterward housed in 
 a permanent building. Then, on leaving college, 
 I was permitted to become the assistant minister 
 of my dearly loved and venerated friend, the late 
 Rev. C. M. Birrell, of Pembroke Chapel, Liver- 
 
1 8 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 pool, whose heart and home were freely opened 
 to me. To have known Mr. Birrell is to have 
 known one of the sweetest, holiest, most catholic, 
 and most cultured men of his time. He was 
 richly endowed by nature in his erect and ele- 
 gant figure, his intellectual face, with its flashing, 
 expressive eye, and noble expanse of forehead, 
 surmounted by the abundance of raven hair. 
 His preaching was deeply spiritual, full of cul- 
 tured thought, expressed in polished and classic 
 phrase. But it was in his conversational powers 
 that he w^s facile princeps. It was a rich treat 
 to sit with him in the eveniiig after supper, and 
 let him talk of men he had known, of places he 
 had visited, books he had read, and ceremonials 
 which he had witnessed. Oh, rare and glorious 
 man, will it ever be my lot again to be admitted 
 into thy inner friendship? Surely thou wilt be 
 too much sought after in that world where such 
 as thou art take the first rank among their peers ! 
 Then came the brief, bright pastorate at York, 
 memorable for the visit of D. L. Moody and Ira 
 D. Sankey, who began their English tour in 1873 
 by the series of services held in my chapel. Then 
 I caught a glimpse of a wider, larger life, in which 
 mere denominationalism could have no place, and 
 in which there was but one standard by which 
 to measure men, namely, their devotion to, and 
 knowledge of, the Son of God. Thank God, I 
 
A BIRTHDAY REVERIE 1 9 
 
 have never receded from that position, and I 
 hope that I never shall. While willing to devote 
 my energies to those with whom my belief on 
 one great subject necessarily allies me, yet I re- 
 fuse to be a mere denominationalist, and I glory 
 most in being a member of the one Catholic 
 Church, and the brother of all who love the Lord 
 Jesus Christ in sincerity. 
 
II. 
 
 iHelbottrne ^all, Cdcester 
 
 " I have no answer for myself or thee, 
 Save that I learned beside my mother's knee : 
 * All is of God, that is, and is to be. 
 And God is good.' Let this suffice us still, 
 Resting in child-like trust upon his will. 
 Who moves to his great ends, unthwarthed by the ill." 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 FROM the beginning of my ministry I had 
 desired to reach the large masses of the 
 people that are outside our churches. My favor- 
 ite Old Testament passage has for years been 
 that which tells how David made the greatest 
 army of his time from the motley crew that 
 gathered around him in the cave; and I have 
 always desired to raise churches and congrega- 
 tions from those who have revolted, not from 
 Christ, but from Christianity as it is too largely 
 represented to them in the ecclesiastical organi- 
 zations around us. 
 
 This desire was deepened during my pastorate 
 at York, where, as I have said, Messrs. Moody 
 
 20 
 
MELBOURNE HALL, LEICESTER 21 
 
 and Sankey, not then so famous, spent about 
 three weeks with me, preaching those sermons 
 and singing those hymns which were destined 
 within a few months to ring through the world. 
 By one means and another, it dawned on me that 
 the majority of non-churchgoers become so not 
 from antagonism to the gospel, but from dislike 
 to the arrangements which raise barriers to the 
 freedom of their access to our places of worship. 
 The working-classes dislike the pew-system, with 
 its class and money distinctions. They do not 
 care to be beholden to the charity of others, es- 
 pecially if these act as though their yearly pay- 
 ment gave them the same kind of exclusive right 
 to a pew that the house-rent does to a house. 
 Many a man has given up attendance at the 
 house of God because of some slight, intentional 
 or not, received years before. Even where pew- 
 holders are most courteous, and delight to enter- 
 tain strangers, their very attentions are some- 
 times embarrassing to the sons of toil. 
 
 I had noticed what large crowds gather in 
 public halls and theaters to hear the simple 
 preaching of God's Word; and I often wished 
 that the time might come when I could preach 
 regularly in a building where all the seats were 
 perfectly open and free to all comers, early at- 
 tendance alone giving a claim to the same posi- 
 tion. 
 
22 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 On vacating the pulpit of the Victoria Road 
 Church, Leicester, in May, 1878, a number of 
 friends gathered round me and proposed that I 
 should begin preaching to the people in a public 
 hall, the Museum Buildings. Very shortly the 
 place became crowded on Sunday evenings, even 
 to the adjacent room, where people would sit to 
 hear, though they could not see, the speaker. 
 Large numbers also professed conversion, and 
 joined the little church which was formed in 
 order to give us permanence and follow the 
 Scripture precedent. In this church the ques- 
 tion of baptism was left to the conscience of each 
 individual ; though the pastor practiced the rite 
 of immersion, but altogether independently of 
 questions of church order and discipline. 
 
 In about a year it was evident that we should 
 require a permanent building ; and a few of us 
 began to pray definitely for guidance. Shortly 
 after, I happened to call on an invalid lady, not 
 directly connected with us, who, as I left her 
 room, put into my hand an envelope, and said 
 that it had been for a long time her desire to 
 give the sum inclosed for the erection of a build- 
 ing for my ministry, and that she had been pray- 
 ing for me to call that very day. On opening it 
 I found a ;^io note, and it spoke to me as the 
 land-birds to Columbus, after his weary voyage, 
 when they perched upon the rigging of his ship, 
 
MELBOURNE HALL, LEICESTER 23 
 
 and told him that he was nearing land. To this 
 other friends added the amounts they felt able to 
 give ; but they fell so far short of the lowest sum 
 we should require as to test rather severely my 
 weak faith. 
 
 One evening, feeling very perplexed about the 
 future, I resolved to devote some time to very 
 special prayer for guidance ; but the answer 
 came before I called, for I noticed that a letter 
 had been put under the front door, written by 
 some anonymous friend, whose style and writing 
 indicated great deficiency in education. The 
 writer expressed an eager desire to see the Lord's 
 house built, and inclosed £1. What followed 
 that night is known only to the Great Master 
 and myself; but I felt that I had heard his voice 
 saying to me, '' Come unto me on the water." 
 For my part, I was perfectly willing to obey his 
 invitation, though I could see no earthly chances 
 of success. That was the moment of decision ; 
 and though many things happened afterward to 
 test my faith, I never hesitated from that time 
 in the behef that I was in the line of the divine 
 purpose. 
 
 My friends and I now came to the decision 
 that we would all give as much as we could 
 afford towards the object that we had in hand, 
 and that we should let our needs be known ; but 
 that we should take no step towards making a 
 
24 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 public canvass for money. I very much ques- 
 tion the expediency of collecting money for re- 
 ligious work from those who have no special 
 religious interest; who give because they are 
 pressed to give, or because they do not Hke to 
 disoblige their friends. We never canvassed for 
 a single penny of all the vast sums we raised for 
 commencing and maintaining the work at Mel- 
 bourne Hall. 
 
 All through the following fortnight the post 
 brought the paper slips, filled in with various 
 amounts, some of them from the very poorest, 
 and all bearing evidence of the efforts and sacri- 
 fices that were being made. And it was truly 
 astonishing to find at its close that ;^i77ohad 
 been promised. We were led to select the site 
 on which Melbourne Hall now stands by a very 
 remarkable but divinely guided foresight on the 
 part of two of our committee ; for the neighbor- 
 hood, which is now covered with houses, was 
 only beginning to be laid out. And finally, 
 after many preliminaries, on a cold evening in 
 March, 1880, about three hundred persons gath- 
 ered to dedicate the ground to God, preparatory 
 to the builder's commencing operations. 
 
 While negotiations were proceeding for the 
 completion of the purchase of the land, notices 
 were inserted in the papers, requesting architects 
 to apply for the printed list of specifications as 
 
MELBOURNE HALL, LEICESTER 25 
 
 to our needs and requirements. These were 
 numerous and particular. The building was to 
 seat twelve hundred to thirteen hundred persons. 
 It was not to be too ecclesiastical in style ; but 
 to resemble a public hall, that those who were 
 prejudiced against churches and chapels might 
 be attracted. There was to be a large supply of 
 rooms for classes and sectional meetings. Spe- 
 cial attention was to be paid to its suitability for 
 seeing and hearing the speaker from all parts. 
 The outside cost was to be £^gQO. We met 
 daily to pray that some one architect might fur- 
 nish a design which, in commending itself to the 
 judgment of all, should be evidently God's de- 
 sign for us. This prayer was answered in the 
 unanimity with which we all selected the designs 
 which are now perpetuated in Me'bourne Hall. 
 The memorial stones were laid on July i, 1880, 
 and the opening services held on July 2, 1881. 
 But not a step was taken that did not come be- 
 fore our Httle daily noon prayer-meeting. 
 
 What Melbourne Hall was and is to those of 
 us who watched every brick added to its rising 
 structure, words fail to tell. It is quite unique 
 in its appearance. On winter nights, when it is 
 lighted up, it would seem as though some giant, 
 striding across the country, had for a moment 
 set down his huge lantern at the junction of 
 the four roads, from one of which the building 
 
26 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 derives its name. Many a wayfarer is cheered 
 in the stormy night by its gleaming welcome. 
 Then within, the seats are so arranged that the 
 congregation sits densely before the minister. 
 And as it became the custom for it to be 
 crowded, aisles and all, on Sunday nights, two 
 rows of chairs being placed down each aisle, it 
 was, and is, a very imposing spectacle. 
 
 One secret of success lay in the constant use 
 we made of the place. Why should noble piles 
 of building, with their attendant class- and read- 
 ing-rooms, which have be^n erected at such cost 
 for public service, be lit up and used for but one 
 night a week, while gin-palaces and beer-shops 
 glow in their gaudy splendor without one even- 
 ing's pause? How can we expect to hold our 
 young people, or our reclaimed workingmen, if 
 we only give them shelter and welcome for two 
 or three hours on Sunday, and leave them to 
 spend all their leisure hours just where they 
 may ? Of course it may be answered, '' Let 
 them spend their evenings at home;" but you 
 might as well expect a swollen brook to keep 
 its course without spreading over the low-lying 
 fields. The people will have change and recrea- 
 tion at night ; and if they cannot get them under 
 the shelter of the Church, many will seek it 
 where they should not. I rejoice that this is in- 
 creasingly appreciated, and that board schools 
 
MELBOURNE HALL, LEICESTER 27 
 
 are being utilized for the well-being of the 
 neighborhoods in which they are situated. Our 
 advice to all Christian workers is, '* Do not spare 
 your coals, and do not study your gas bills." 
 Every shilling spent in firing and lighting comes 
 back a thousandfold in moral and spiritual good. 
 The way to save your young people from inane 
 and injurious entertainments is to secure their 
 cooperation in providing wholesome and spiritual 
 meetings for those who otherwise might drift 
 into questionable surroundings : Mission or Gos- 
 pel Services; Blue-Ribbon meetings; Saturday 
 evening social gatherings for the tempted and 
 reclaimed; Ambulance Classes; Christian En- 
 deavor meetings, and many other agencies of a 
 similar character, which combine the maximum 
 of benefit with the minimum of peril. 
 
 It was with bitter pain and regret that I tore 
 myself away from Melbourne Hall, and it will 
 always live deep down in my heart ; but I rejoice 
 to know that it flourishes still, under the pastoral 
 care of my beloved friend. Rev. W. Y. Fullerton, 
 who has succeeded Rev. C. B. Sawday, now of 
 Leeds. 
 
 "Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity 
 within thy palaces. For my brethren and com- 
 panions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within 
 thee." 
 
III. 
 
 Cttttttcijing ^nt 
 
 ** Whosoever may 
 Discern true ends here — shall grow pure enough 
 To love them, brave enough to strive for them, 
 And strong enough to reach them, though the roads be rough." 
 
 E. B. Browning. 
 
 LAUNCH out into the deep," the Master said, 
 when his sermon was done. On the shore 
 stood the eager crowds that had thronged and 
 pressed him. He felt unequal to go among 
 them after the long strain imposed by his mira- 
 cles and teaching. The calm lake, with its far 
 stretches of tranquil water, in which mountain 
 and sky were reflected, and from across whose 
 surface the light fresh breeze came to fan his 
 face, beckoned him. Besides which, he had prob- 
 ably already heard the story of the unsuccessful 
 night. He knew something of the needs of a 
 fisherman's home. He desired to pay amply for 
 the use of the fishing-boat. And deeper than 
 all there was the urgent necessity to give his fol- 
 28 
 
LAUNCHING OUT 29 
 
 lowers in parabolic form a lesson in catching 
 men. 
 
 Peter and the rest had to learn that the way 
 to success in Christian work lay in obedience 
 to the command of Christ, though apparently in 
 collision with the results of human foresight and 
 prudence. No fisherman, of all that plied their 
 craft around that lake, would have dreamed of 
 launching forth at noontide for a haul of fish, 
 knowing well that they would be lying in the 
 deep water beyond the reach of his net. It was, 
 therefore, a searching test of their willingness to 
 obey the word of Christ. Our Lord also wished 
 to teach his Church no longer to hug the shore, 
 or to content herself with a work among the 
 chosen people, and those who had an inclination 
 toward good things ; but to go forth where men 
 congregated in the great deeps of human life, 
 and there, even when experience and sagacity 
 were at fault, to obey his command in letting 
 down the gospel net. 
 
 Our churches have been too slow in heeding 
 the Master's command. They have been con- 
 tent with their own small circle, the members, 
 the congregation, and the Sunday-schools, with 
 their several coteries; but they have made too 
 few attempts to deal with the great masses 
 which seldom come within our places of worship. 
 These need our care, they are the other sheep 
 
30 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 which the Good Shepherd said that he must 
 seek ; and they are really more susceptible to the 
 appeals of the gospel than those who have been 
 reared in Christian homes, or within the silver 
 notes of the gospel. 
 
 I have sometimes described these reminis- 
 cences as "deep-sea fishing." A lecture bear- 
 ing that title was once widely advertised in 
 London, with the effect of attracting some sailors 
 from the East End, who expected to hear some- 
 thing about their own caUing. I am afraid they 
 were a Httle disappointed when they discovered 
 that my deep sea was not that of the ocean, but 
 the great abyss of human life, with its teeming 
 shoals, its countless multitudes. 
 
 These records of my own experiences in this 
 direction are set down in the hope that I may 
 encourage others to launch their fishing-smack, 
 and let down their nets where I have found so 
 much interest and such rich spoils. One main 
 secret of success in church life is the organiza- 
 tion of its members and adherents for work 
 among the masses of people. Only our nets 
 should be both mended and clean, that we may 
 be prepared at any time to obey the Master's 
 summons. 
 
 I well remember my first walk through Leices- 
 ter, up its long London Road, passing out from 
 the station, and meeting the long stream of op- 
 
LAUNCHING OUT 3 I 
 
 eratives hurrying down the street, from their 
 brief dinner-hour, to the heart of the town, 
 where the factories are situated. And as they 
 passed me in the quick step of their busy Hfe, I 
 could not help saying to myself, " Shall I ever 
 know these people, or understand them, or win 
 their confidence and love?" And recollections 
 arose before me of J. P. Mursell, and Edward 
 Miall, and Nathaniel Haycroft, who had wielded 
 a mighty influence over those same masses, by 
 the force of an eloquence, a genius, a brilliance 
 of thought and diction, a clear-headedness and 
 directness of statement, of which I knew myself 
 to be destitute. And my heart sank within me. 
 
 But I had yet to learn that the true way to 
 the heart of a town is open to any man who will 
 use the golden key of kindness, and concentrate 
 his energies to doing those deeds of mercy the 
 opportunity for which lies around each one of 
 us, however small our powers, however circum- 
 scribed our sphere. 
 
 In the earlier years of my Leicester ministry I 
 failed in finding the path which led to the ac- 
 complishment of my cherished purpose. There 
 were many reasons for this ; the chief of which, 
 perhaps, was a certain idea of the dignity of the 
 ministerial office, which restrained me from en- 
 tering freely into the life of the people, and 
 hedged me around with a reserve that hid my 
 
32 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 real self. All this, however, in God's own time 
 and way, came to an end when, having resigned 
 my pastorate of Victoria Church, I undertook 
 the work which developed into Melbourne Hall, 
 and from the first was intended to reach those 
 masses of the people who seemed altogether be- 
 yond the ordinary means of grace. 
 
 It was a little after the commencement of the 
 services in the Museum Buildings that the work 
 at the prison gate began, in the following way. 
 A young girl who attended our services came to 
 me one day in great distress about her father, 
 who was in jail, and likely to come out on the 
 following morning. She wished me to meet him 
 as he was discharged, and do my best to save 
 him from his bad companions, who would be 
 probably waiting for him. This I readily under- 
 took to do ; and it was out of this trivial incident 
 that all the work of which I am to write arose. 
 How often it is that, when we are looking for 
 some great work to do, a little child, as in the 
 old legend of St. Christopher, asks us to carry it 
 across the rushing stream ; or a tiny act of min- 
 istry is required by some servant or neighbor; 
 and this is the rill which broadens, widens, and 
 deepens into the mighty river on which navies 
 float and merchant-vessels pass far up into the 
 land. 
 
 On the following morning I left my home at 
 
LAUNCHING OUT 33 
 
 a quarter to nine, not without considerable mis- 
 givings. It was a cold and dreary winter morn- 
 ing; a heavy mist was hanging over the town, 
 and dripping heavily from the bare branches of 
 the trees in the gardens and public walks. At 
 nine I reached the jail, and asked through the 
 grating if a man bearing the given name was 
 about to be discharged. Almost to my relief I 
 discovered that he had been transferred to an- 
 other prison, and that therefore, so far as he was 
 concerned, my errand was in vain. However, I 
 retired across the road, and waited quietly to see 
 the usual method of discharge. 
 
 In a few moments more the little door in 
 the great nail-studded gates opened, and a man 
 stepped out, looking nervously around him, as 
 if anxious about the welcome which he would 
 receive from the world of men, which had been 
 compelled to banish him from its midst. How- 
 ever, he was not left long in doubt ; for from the 
 side of the street where I stood an interested 
 spectator, two women sped across the road to 
 greet him, one of whom — the elder — bore a long 
 coat, into which she helped him, enveloping him 
 from head to foot ; while the other, slenderer and 
 younger, perhaps wife or sweetheart, encircled 
 his neck in a scarlet cloth, and so the two led 
 him away into the public-house close by, and the 
 door swung heavily behind them. Meanwhile, 
 
34 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 another man had emerged from the prison door, 
 but there was no one to welcome him; and ap- 
 parently not knowing what else to do, he followed 
 in the wake of the others, across the road to the 
 pubHc-house. 
 
 I have been credibly informed that the value 
 of the custom of discharged prisoners had greatly 
 enhanced the purchase-money of that public- 
 house ; and I cannot but be glad if my efforts 
 did something to lessen the yearly revenue, be- 
 cause so often the whole of a man's good resolu- 
 tions have been dissipated by a glass of beer, to 
 which he has been treated with the well-inten- 
 tioned good-will of his companions and friends. 
 And as we shall see presently, the government 
 vtark-money may be put to better use than to be 
 squandered in a drunken revel at the expense of 
 the man who has earned it by months of industry 
 and good behavior. I have no ill-will against 
 Hquor-dealers as a body; but I have learned 
 vehemently to hate the trade, and the facilities 
 which abound so plentifully for the sale of intoxi- 
 cants. When will the Church of God arouse her- 
 self for one great, determined effort to break the 
 thraldom by which myriads are being continually 
 dragged down to perdition ? 
 
 There were standing near me some men of the 
 lower artisan class, pipe in mouth, either waiting 
 
LAUNCHING OUT 35 
 
 to go into their shops, or with nothing particular 
 to do. These, too, had eyed the proceedings with 
 a vague interest, and turning to them I said : 
 
 " Lads, is this the style of thing that goes on 
 here most mornings?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," they said; "mostly." 
 
 ** But," said I, " if a man comes out at yonder 
 jail door, and goes into the door of the pubhc- 
 house, he appears to me to come out of the jail 
 by the front door and go into it again by the 
 back one ; for I reckon that the public-house is 
 the back door to the jail." 
 
 "Well," said they, " what's a chap to do? 
 When he comes out of that 'ere place, there's 
 nowhere else for him to go to but the pubHc," 
 
 It was perfectly true ; and I felt that the time 
 had come when it should be true no longer. So 
 I crossed the road, rang the bell, asked to see 
 the governor. Miles Walker, Esq. — at whose hands 
 from that moment I was to receive the most un- 
 wavering kindness and cooperation — and laid be- 
 fore him my request to be permitted to come 
 each morning to escort the discharged prisoners 
 to one of the splendid Leicester coffee-houses, 
 which was within three minutes' walk. 
 
 He at once assented to my request, told me that 
 he would put every faciHty in my way, and invited 
 me to come there within the gates each morning, 
 
36 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 that I might learn something of the prisoners 
 with whom I should have to deal. And so I 
 paid my first visit to the place into whose gloomy 
 doors I was to be admitted each morning for sev- 
 eral happy following years, as I hope to tell. 
 
IV. 
 ^t t[)c Sail (Baits 
 
 " Now thou mayest give 
 The famished food, the prisoner liberty, 
 Light to the darkened mind, to the lost soul 
 A place in heaven. Take thou the privilege 
 With solemn gratitude. Speck as thou art 
 Upon earth's surface, gloriously exult 
 To be co-worker with the King of Heaven." 
 Mrs. Sigourney, 
 
 I SHALL never forget my first morning's 
 work at the jail gate, following on the inci- 
 dent related in the last chapter. I fear that I 
 more than once repented of the promise I had 
 given the governor, and wished that I had never 
 undertaken the cause of the discharged jail-birds. 
 This was not owing to any lack of interest in 
 them, but because of a great nervousness as to 
 the way in which they might treat me ; and 
 especially as to the effect it would have on my 
 church and congregation, who might seriously 
 object to the close identification which must nat- 
 urally ensue between their history and that of the 
 new cause which I had espoused. 
 37 
 
38 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 Altogether, between my fear of what the dis- 
 charged prisoners would do to me, and what my 
 own people and the townsfolk would think of 
 me, I had an uncomfortable time of it ; and my 
 knees trembled as I went down, almost as much 
 as they did when I stood up to preach my first 
 trial sermon in the httle chapel. Moor Street, 
 Seven Dials, before a formidable phalanx of min- 
 isters and friends. I had not then learned what 
 it is to be the slave of Jesus Christ — a condition 
 of mind in which one becomes blessedly obHvious 
 to what men may say or do, so long as the light of 
 his approval shines warm and fresh upon the heart. 
 
 I cannot remember exactly how many were 
 waiting for discharge when I reached the prison 
 that morning at nine o'clock. It was customary 
 for them to be marshaled in single file along the 
 wall on the left-hand side within the gate, their 
 faces directed away from the gate, and toward 
 the bit of garden, beyond which lay the principal 
 portion of the prison premises. So far as I can 
 recollect there were four or five — and all men. 
 The gate-keeper was the only other person pres- 
 ent as I went up to them and made a short speech. 
 It ran somewhat in this strain : 
 
 *' My lads, I have come to give you an invita- 
 tion to breakfast. When a man gets out of this 
 place he often goes straight to the public-house, 
 and gets back among his old pals, and they pull 
 
AT THE JAIL GATES 39 
 
 him down. But if you come with me to a coffee- 
 house, which is a step down the road, I will see 
 that you have a good breakfast, and will do what 
 I can to give you a fresh start." 
 
 They all turned and scrutinized me narrowly 
 from head to foot, and seemed in doubt as to 
 what to make of me ; for I had no special dis- 
 tinctive dress, and they were at a loss to classify 
 me with the chaplain, or the private gentleman, 
 or the agent of some society. 
 
 However, one man touched his hat, and said, 
 " I'll come, sir, and thank you kindly ;" on which 
 the others, one by one, expressed their willing- 
 ness to do the same. 
 
 " By this time the clerks had arrived in the office, 
 and were calling for the men to come in, one at 
 a time, to claim the money and trinkets and other 
 articles which had been taken from them on their 
 first admission into jail, all these things being 
 always carefully entered and kept. The warrants 
 also were examined, and then placed in the dis- 
 charge-book, which was laid on the governor's 
 table to await his coming. 
 
 Presently I heard, while waiting in his little 
 private room, his steps down the long stone pas- 
 sage, as he came from his own house ; and I was 
 encouraged by a very warm and friendly greet- 
 ing. We had some chat, and he told me a little 
 about the different men who were to be dis- 
 
40 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 charged, that I might not be quite unprepared to 
 deal with them. These talks in after years be- 
 came more and more interesting, especially as we 
 had often to deal with those whom both of us 
 had come to know as '' old hands." 
 
 It would not be becoming for me to say all 
 that I soon felt toward my friend the governor; 
 but I had many opportunities of remarking the 
 deep interest he evinced in the reformation of 
 the prisoners committed to his care, and the 
 sound advice which he was in the habit of ad- 
 ministering, especially to young or new offenders. 
 Nor must I forget the chief warder of those days, 
 who took the governor's place in his absence; 
 nor the chaplain, with whom I was always on 
 the best of terms ; nor the clerks ; nor indeed the 
 general staff, all of them taking a genuine inter- 
 est in the work begun that morning, and which, 
 I think, shed a humane and beneficent influence 
 on them all. 
 
 At last the hour comes for discharge. One 
 by one the men are summoned before the gov- 
 ernor, and asked if they have all their property, 
 and if they have anything to say ; and then with 
 a word of advice or warning he says, *' You may 
 go." And each passes into the gateway, and 
 through the little door in the big gates, back into 
 the world, from which he has been banished for 
 days, or months, or years. 
 
AT THE JAIL GATES 4 1 
 
 This was always my opportunity ; I went out 
 with the first, unless I had men waiting outside 
 to help me, in which case they took, man by 
 man, the prisoners as they emerged, and walked 
 with them to the coffee-house. But on this, the 
 first morning, I stepped out with the first, and 
 we waited together till the whole had made their 
 exit from the prison, and then started at a quick 
 step to the coffee-house. It was a very strange 
 experience. There was a little group of loiterers 
 across the road, eagerly watching to see if any 
 of their special friends were returning to their 
 society, and they were evidently surprised to see 
 me in such equivocal company. As we walked 
 along that pavement, which I was so repeatedly 
 to tread in the early morning, on a similar errand, 
 I felt that the shopkeepers all along the route 
 were eying me very curiously. 
 
 However, we got to the coffee-house at last, 
 and I landed all my men without any great diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 If only my pen were more quick in the delin- 
 eation of character, I would now depict my friend 
 Richard, the manager of that coffee-house, who 
 was destined to play a very important part in the 
 outworking of my scheme. He was a young 
 man of about twenty-six, short, thick-set, per- 
 haps not remarkable in his features, except for 
 the light that shone in his eye ; but a genuine 
 
42 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 man — true, loyal, chivalrous to the last degree, 
 ready at repartee, able to hold his own with the 
 keenest; but, as I found, a Christian and a mem- 
 her of a Bible-class, the teacher of which, a lady, 
 be held in high honor. 
 
 In the whole kingdom it is impossible to find 
 a town so well equipped with first-rate coffee- 
 houses as Leicester. I have never seen anywhere 
 coffee-houses which, as a whole, would compete 
 for a moment with those erected by the Leicester 
 Coffee and Cocoa House Company. They had 
 some nine or ten when I left the town, and it 
 was a luxury to go into any one of them for a 
 meal. The marble-topped tables were always 
 clean ; the floors always fresh with new sawdust ; 
 the provisions always of the best quality ; the at- 
 tendants always civil and obliging; the appear- 
 ance always Hght and airy and comfortable. It 
 is not to be wondered at that they are paying a 
 handsome dividend; and that their accommoda- 
 tion is strained to the uttermost, especially at 
 dinner-time, when the operatives crowd every 
 seat and fill every corner. 
 
 " What's this that ye're up to? " was Richard's 
 first salutation as I entered the coffee-house with 
 my new friends. 
 
 I told him, and said, ** I want you to get them 
 some breakfast. Where shall they sit?" 
 
 We then located them in a corner of the coffee- 
 
AT THE JAIL GATES 43 
 
 house, where they were screened from the imme- 
 diate observation of those who came into the bar, 
 and agreed that we must give them something 
 more substantial than mere bread and butter. It 
 is probable that we there and then instituted the 
 plate of ham, which was in all after days to prove 
 so great an attraction to palates which had been 
 long accustomed to skilly and brown bread. This, 
 with two or three cups of tea, coffee, or cocoa, 
 and as much bread and butter as the hungriest 
 could eat, cost about sixpence per head. Some- 
 times it seemed that the digestion turned against 
 the richer food, and we gave the breakfast to be 
 taken away in the pocket in the shape of sand- 
 wiches. 
 
 It was a great business to get this first break- 
 fast arranged and carried through ; and I cannot 
 remember any of the conversation which I doubt- 
 less had with the men over the meal. But when 
 they had all gone, I learned from Richard that 
 there was no objection, so far as he could see, to 
 our coming there every morning, as the coffee- 
 house was always empty about that time ; those 
 who had been to breakfast having gone, and the 
 luncheoners not having arrived. 
 
 ** Are you doing this on your own head?" 
 Richard asked. 
 
 ''Yes," said I; "I don't know who's to help 
 me." 
 
44 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 '' Well," said he, '* if you won't be above tak- 
 ing it, I would like to give you the first subscrip- 
 tion." And Richard put a piece of silver into 
 my hand, which shone there like a gleam of the 
 divine blessing, as it was certainly the first-fruits 
 of gifts which were to come to me from all parts 
 of the community when the work began to be 
 known, and which enabled me to give breakfasts 
 to between forty-five hundred and five thousand 
 men and women on those same seats before I left 
 Leicester and my interesting work at the jail gate. 
 
V. 
 M^ SivQi Case 
 
 " I have been wild and wayward, 
 But you'll forgive me now." 
 
 " Am not I nobler through thy love? " 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 MANY of my readers will be asking that I 
 shall pass as soon as possible from the gen- 
 eral description of my work to narrate some par- 
 ticulars as to its effect on individual cases. And 
 I will, therefore, give some account of my first 
 successful case — one on which I expended a good 
 deal of thought, and the outcome of which was 
 a great encouragement. It gave me indeed a 
 new conception of the possibilities of my work at 
 the prison gate. 
 
 One morning in the early days of my new en- 
 terprise, there were only two or three prisoners 
 waiting for discharge, one of whom was very un- 
 promising in his appearance. He had evidently 
 been a tramp, his garments were unusually ragged, 
 45 
 
46 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 and his appearance disreputable and unkempt. 
 The rents in his trousers were scarcely drawn 
 together by the wide cross-stitches; his boots 
 would have taken in water at the toe and let it 
 out at the heel ; his clothes hardly covered him. 
 I think I can see now his dejected, miserable look. 
 
 ''Will you come to the coffee-house?" said I. 
 
 " Yes,'* was the almost sullen reply. 
 
 And I certainly had never before trodden that 
 Via Dolorosa with such a ragged and wretched 
 companion. 
 
 When we reached the coffee-house I discov- 
 ered, after the warm food had exerted its wonted 
 thawing influence, that he had been a Leicester 
 workman years before, had then entered the 
 army, but on his discharge had taken to drunken 
 habits, and had gradually reduced himself to the 
 very lowest level, associating with tramps and 
 outcasts. 
 
 Something attracted me to this man, who was 
 yet in early manhood, and I felt strongly disposed 
 to help him back to respectability. 
 
 In all such cases, the first step was the signing 
 of the pledge-card, of which we always kept a 
 large supply at hand, with plenty of blue ribbon 
 in case of need. In nine cases out of ten drink 
 had been the ultimate cause of landing my poor 
 friends in jail. It was sometimes lamentable in 
 the morning to run the eye through the warrants 
 
MY FIRST CASE 47 
 
 of discharge, or down the list made in one's own 
 book for guidance in deahng with the specific 
 cases, and see as the repeated description of their 
 crime, " drunk," ** drunk and disorderly," *' drunk 
 and assault." Very often men and women would 
 tell me that they had no remembrance of com- 
 mitting the crime with which they had been 
 charged, and had only awoke from a kind of 
 stupor to find themselves in the cell of the police 
 station. The fact being, I often fancied, that the 
 stuff which they took was neither good beer nor 
 unadulterated spirits, but in many cases vile de- 
 coctions which utterly poisoned the system, and 
 perverted the working of the brain. In these 
 cases, and indeed in all, the first great effort was 
 always in the direction of pledge-signing. 
 
 I know that many differ from me in this, and 
 urge that we should in each case begin with the 
 message of the gospel. I hope that this was 
 never far away from my thoughts or lips ; but I 
 have always found that one's message falls flat 
 until men are convinced of their sins, and made 
 willing to confess and forsake them. Men can- 
 not believe God or accept the gospel of his love 
 on the one hand so long as they are concealing 
 or clinging to sin on the other. It is of course 
 clear that the sinner cannot deliver himself from 
 the bondage of sin ; he needs for this the Great 
 High Priest and Saviour; but he must feel and 
 
48 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 acknowledge and be willing to forsake his sin 
 before the message of salvation can become to 
 him the power of God unto salvation. The sign- 
 ing of the pledge in numberless cases, in the 
 name of God, was a confession and avowal of 
 sinnership on the part of some sin-cursed soul, 
 and an expression of desire for deliverance — yea, 
 more, a pledging of the will on God's side in this 
 matter; while it is undeniable that in hundreds 
 of instances the resolution, being kept in prayer 
 and dependence on the divine help, has led to a 
 new and blessed life. When the will is yielded, 
 God's Spirit can always begin his blessed work 
 of deliverance and salvation. 
 
 No effort was therefore spared to induce dis- 
 charged prisoners to sign the pledge. In many 
 cases they had themselves seen the results of 
 their folly, and came out of jail determined never 
 again to touch intoxicating liquor. In other 
 cases the most earnest entreaties were obdurately 
 and determinedly resisted ; and this was specially 
 often the case when evil companions were lurking 
 about the door of the coffee-house, prepared to 
 escort their " pal " to some neighboring public- 
 house. But often our persuasions won the day, 
 especially being supported by the fact that in 
 prison the men had been able to exist, had done 
 their work quite comfortably without the drink, 
 and had really enjoyed better health than before. 
 
MY FIRST CASE 49 
 
 In these respects prison-life is a perfect revelation 
 to many men, showing how much happier and 
 easier life may be without yielding to inveterate 
 appetite. Indeed, there are times in which in- 
 carceration is the only way by which these evil 
 habits may be broken off, and a man or woman 
 disentangled from their old companions. Fre- 
 quently when a wife or mother has come to tell 
 me of the conviction of husband or son, I have 
 astonished and comforted them by recounting 
 the many instances in which the solitude of the 
 prison-cell has led to the disillusioning and de- 
 liverance of those who had come under my care. 
 This is especially the case with the first experi- 
 ence of the prison-cell; after that, and when it 
 has been twice or thrice repeated, the heart be- 
 comes stubborn and obdurate, and the character 
 degraded rather than elevated. This is particu- 
 larly the case with women. 
 
 The man of whom I am writing did not need 
 much persuasion, and signed the pledge-card 
 with some show of resolution. He told me his 
 former trade; though it seemed likely that his 
 hands would be long in recovering the skill they 
 had once possessed, and which was almost essen- 
 tial to enable him to hold his own with other 
 workmen. 
 
 In the meanwhile, and to give me time to test 
 him, and to look about for a situation, I took him 
 
50 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 to a small but respectable men's lodging-house, 
 where I knew he would be shielded from many 
 of the temptations which are so intimately con- 
 nected with the common lodging-house system. 
 
 If any one desires to save men or to arrest 
 the process of deterioration in them, he must de- 
 liver them from the ordinary common lodging- 
 house. Perhaps it will be well to reserve the 
 further consideration of this matter for a separate 
 chapter. In the meantime, let me advise those 
 who are working in these directions to estab- 
 lish common lodging-houses of their own, which, 
 under proper management, should pay their own 
 expenses. 
 
 My protege went on very well for some days, 
 keeping steadily to his pledge, and I was able, 
 through the kindness of a friendly manufacturer, 
 to obtain him employment. And here I must 
 stay for a moment to acknowledge the kindness 
 which I invariably received from the Leicester 
 manufacturers. I often had to trouble them, in 
 the midst of busy mornings, with requests that 
 they would give some discharged prisoner a sec- 
 ond chance. I cannot recall a case in which I 
 did not receive a courteous hearing; and very 
 often men were taken on again whose places had 
 been filled up, or vacancies were made to give 
 some fallen man a berth. Often if we met in the 
 streets, these business men would stay to have a 
 
MY FIRST CASE 5 I 
 
 few moments' talk about some such case, regret- 
 ting a relapse, or speaking kindly and hopefully 
 of a good promise being abundantly realized. 
 
 Of course I had to rig out my poor friend with 
 more decent clothes. In after-days this was 
 rendered more easy by the parcels of cast-off 
 clothes with which the Leicester philanthropic 
 pubHc supplied me ; but at that stage of my work 
 I had to obtain them from second-hand salesmen, 
 with whom I came into interesting relations, 
 which experience might make a story of itself. 
 One or two of these men became really interested 
 in the work for its own sake. 
 
 It is interesting to realize how much charitable 
 feeling is latent in most hearts, waiting to be 
 elicited and drawn forth in other ways than in 
 the mere gifts of money. Many people are ren- 
 dering but little help to their fellows, not because 
 they will not, but that they do not know how to 
 begin. Once show them how they may become 
 interested in others, they will gladly embrace the 
 opportunity, and find a new zest in life, to be 
 henceforth gratefully connected with the agent 
 or cause that first evoked it. 
 
 One day, when my case was getting somewhat 
 out of hand, because he was able to save a lit- 
 tle out of his earnings toward procuring himself 
 another suit of clothes and other little necessaries, 
 I had a longer talk with him than usual. It is 
 
52 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 of the utmost importance in dealing with such 
 men to see them pretty often, to show that you 
 are still interested, and to speak encouraging and 
 helpful words. There is a sense in which the 
 words of a good man are spirit and life, and sup- 
 ply nutriment on which the soul feeds. It was 
 my endeavor to come in contact with these cases 
 as frequently as possible ; and in the present in- 
 stance, when my hands were less full, I could do 
 more than subsequently. 
 
 In the course of our talk, and pitying his lone- 
 liness, for he seemed to have no companions to 
 help him in the new path he was treading with 
 some difficulty, I said : 
 
 *' Haven't you any people belonging to you ? " 
 
 '' No, sir," was the reply ; " they are all dead 
 or gone away." 
 
 " But is there no one that cares for you, or for 
 whom you care? " 
 
 "Well, sir," said he, 'Til tell you. There is 
 a girl with whom I used to keep company — as 
 nice a girl as you ever set eyes on ; but she 
 wouldn't be Hkely to look at me now." And he 
 looked rather ruefully down at his clothes. 
 
 '^Well," said I, "there's no telling. These 
 women are wonderful creatures. I've known 
 them stick to a man when he has lost all self- 
 respect. There's no accounting for a woman's 
 love." 
 
MY FIRST CASE 53 
 
 " Do you think so? " he said wistfully. 
 
 *' Now," I replied, *' if you like, I'll go and see 
 this girl for you. You see you needn't be jeal- 
 ous of me. And I will find out, if I can, whether 
 she still thinks kindly of you. And then I'll let 
 you know, and you can do as you like." 
 
 He seemed very relieved, and thanked me 
 kindly. And I left him, rejoiced to be on this 
 new track, because human love is so often a rev- 
 elation of the love of God ; and if only you can 
 awaken in a man's heart the thought that some 
 one cares for him, you will probably lead him to 
 desire to be worthy of that care, and to rise to it. 
 
 It seems but yesterday morning that I found 
 myself traversing a respectable street in an arti- 
 sans' quarter, and knocking at a door half-way 
 down. My summons was replied to by a re- 
 spectable young woman, and I found that it was 
 her father's house. I gave my name, and was 
 admitted into the little front best room. It was 
 furnished like so many others which it was my 
 privilege to visit in Leicester, with the huge tra- 
 ditional Bible on the round mahogany table, and 
 the little mirror over the mantelpiece, while the 
 backs of the horsehair chairs were covered with 
 the usual array of white antimacassars. And 
 there the lady-fair stood before me, her sleeves 
 tucked up, and her bare arms steaming with the 
 results of the early morning wash-tub. 
 
54 ^H^ BELLS OF IS 
 
 " Ah/' thought I, '' if you are the one I am in 
 search of, you'll do ; for the girl who will be well 
 through her washing in her father's house so early 
 in the day is the one to make a good wife for any 
 man." 
 
 To my delight I found that her name was the 
 one her quondam lover had given me, and I pro- 
 ceeded on my delicate investigations. I cannot 
 disclose here quite the way in which I prosecuted 
 them. I think I learned more by the flush on 
 the cheek, the evident interest, the eager look, 
 than by actual words; and after a little further 
 conversation left the house, sure that the love 
 had not died out of that woman's heart, and that 
 she was still true to him who had woke it years 
 before. 
 
 I told my friend the result of my interview. 
 He was very pleased. I also helped him to get 
 clothes more becoming a wooer ; and some little 
 time after I was delighted to meet the two, one 
 Sunday afternoon, walking out together. I do 
 not know whether they saw me ; but I looked 
 the other way, not wishing to intrude on their 
 new-found joy, or to identify myself with it. It 
 was better to let them feel that it was their own 
 procuring, and God's good gift. 
 
 He had before this commenced to attend the 
 Sunday Evening Service in Melbourne Hall. She 
 was wise enough to encourage him in this, and 
 
MY FIRST CASE 55 
 
 began to attend there with him. Eventually they 
 both found the Saviour, or, better, were found of 
 him. What shall I not say of the free and open 
 seat system, which enables such people to come 
 freely in ; or of the advantage of a crowd, amid 
 which those are able to conceal themselves who 
 would shrink from being conducted through long 
 aisles to some half-filled seat, where their dress 
 or behavior might excite unkind remarks? 
 
 Some twelve months passed, and my friend 
 came to me under the pressure of that nervous- 
 ness in which most men come to their clergyman 
 or minister once in their life. I immediately 
 guessed the object of his errand ; asked the place 
 and time, and engaged to marry the happy couple, 
 who had, through their united exertions, saved 
 money enough to furnish a cosy little home. I 
 remember that wedding, and how a policeman, 
 who had known him in earlier and sadder days, 
 stood as his best man. It was the first wedding 
 of that sort, though, thank God, not the last. 
 And many a time besides have I conducted a 
 kind of second wedding in the coffee-house for 
 those who had broken, or strained to breaking, 
 their marriage bonds. 
 
 It was a pleasure to visit that little home. 
 What a welcome I got there! How profuse 
 were the expressions of gratitude! How regular 
 their attendance at God's house! How evident 
 
56 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 their growth! And just before I left Leicester 
 he approached me with the request that they 
 should be permitted to sit at the table of the 
 Lord. 
 
 So all comes back to me again as I write, and 
 stirs again the old love for this direct and personal 
 work among the lapsed. I seem now to be called 
 to somewhat other work, but my heart clings to 
 the memory of those dear and blessed days at 
 Leicester prison gate. Their memories will be 
 green in my heart till death. And my earnest 
 advice to all young ministers is — to mix freely 
 with the people ; to visit systematically and wide- 
 ly ; to study men as well as books ; to converse 
 with all classes and conditions of men : always on 
 the alert to learn from some fresh pages of the 
 heart opened to the view of the sympathetic soul. 
 
VI. 
 ODur System of Helief 
 
 * ' Such mercy he by his most holy reede 
 Unto us taught, and to approve it trew 
 
 Ensampled it by his most righteous deede, 
 Shewing us mercie, miserable crew ! 
 
 That we the like should to the wretches shew, 
 
 And love our brethren." 
 
 SpeSser. 
 
 IT is not enough to meet a discharged prisoner, 
 and speak kindly to him, or give him a break- 
 fast. If this is all, as soon as he leaves you, and 
 the gnawings of hunger return, he will be very 
 liable to be seduced from his new-formed resolu- 
 tions by mixing with old companions, and to re- 
 lapse into his old courses. 
 
 It is often weary work for men of good charac- 
 ter to obtain employment. It is a common ex- 
 perience to meet men of irreproachable character 
 who have spent week after week in fruitless search, 
 wiUing to take anything that offered, but meet- 
 ing with constant disappointment. How much 
 harder, then, must it be for men who have a fatal 
 57 
 
58 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 stigma on their character, or bear the brand of 
 the prison ! Very often their experiences in jail 
 will make them more reliable and steady than 
 others who have never fallen into the clutches of 
 the law ; but this is not considered by employers, 
 who, for the most .part, have no time or interest 
 for such questions, their one aim being to get as 
 much work done in as short a time as possible. 
 
 A man comes out of jail resolved to reform. 
 He has made up his mind not to drink or mix 
 with his old mates. He intends to go straight ; 
 and as soon as he has had his breakfast he starts 
 in pursuit of employment The air is fresh, it is 
 a delight to be free, his hopes are high ; let him 
 but have work, and all will be well. But the 
 day's search is in vain. He goes to his home, or 
 some shelter for the night; and yet surely to- 
 morrow will bring better fortune. But to-morrow 
 comes and goes, and many such days, all full of 
 fruitless search. Every door is closed, and some 
 rudely and roughly. Want stares him in the 
 face. His resolution and sense of independence 
 die down. He begins to " shack " about the 
 streets again, and to go with the men who do not 
 mean to work so long as they can sponge on 
 others, or get drink. And sometimes, in sheer 
 desperation, the man who started a week ago so 
 well, is back again in nearly the same position of 
 drink and crime as before. 
 
OUR SYSTEM OF RELIEF 59 
 
 It is the good custom of our present prison 
 system to allow prisoners to earn "mark-money." 
 By attention to prison discipline, by prompt obe- 
 dience to all rules and regulations, and especially 
 by good behavior, a man wins a certain number 
 of marks, which, if the maximum are gained, will 
 procure him the sum of ten shillings at the end 
 of six months, or a proportionate sum for any less 
 time. Thus those who leave after a long term 
 may have two or three pounds to receive, while 
 those who have been in jail for only a few weeks 
 will not be without a few shillings. 
 
 This may be a great blessing to those who do 
 well. It provides them with a little capital to 
 start with ; or, at the least, finds them shelter and 
 food while they are considering their next step. 
 Where there is a Prison Aid Society properly 
 established, at the discretion of the governor and 
 the agent the government, in really deserving 
 cases, allows an additional grant to be made to 
 the mark-money, so that there may be an even 
 larger *' nest-egg " for starting the new and better 
 career. 
 
 This mark-money may, however, prove a great 
 curse. Before I began my work, it was the habit 
 of a large number of loafers and ne'er-do-wells 
 to gather near the prison gate, opposite to which 
 was the public-house ; and they would do their 
 best to entice those who were leaving the prison 
 
6o THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 to come across for drink, with the almost positive 
 certainty of spending the whole of the precious 
 money so hardly earned, but so lightly and fool- 
 ishly squandered in treating the entire party. In 
 such society the weak resolution, hardly con- 
 solidated as yet, will soon break down, and within 
 an hour the whole fabric of the new and better 
 life rudely and irretrievably demolished. 
 
 It was always, therefore, my plan to get hold 
 of this mark- money, and keep it until I knew how 
 it was to be spent. All agents of the Prison Aid 
 Society have a right to this, and the prison au- 
 thorities are only too glad to intrust it to their 
 care. Besides, there is an advantage to the pris- 
 oner, because his meager earnings may be aug- 
 mented, partly from the government funds already 
 alluded to, and partly from the funds collected 
 locally for the support of the branch. Many a 
 time have men been thankful that the spending 
 of the money w^as not left to them, and that they 
 could say truthfully to friends and others that 
 they had not a penny in their pockets. 
 
 This money, and the other money at my dis- 
 posal, enabled me to solve some of the difficulties 
 about work to which I have alluded. It enabled 
 me to set up several on their own account. Many 
 times did we spend five shillings in a peddler's 
 license, with another two shillings' worth of stock. 
 Often we started women with materials to make 
 
OUR SYSTEM OF RELIEF 6 1 
 
 fire-screens, or to do wool and fancy work. Those 
 were times when I knew all the kinds of fish that 
 were in season, and their prices ; and enabled my 
 poor clients to start selling fish, or oranges, or 
 other market commodities. But I confess that 
 these latter were not very satisfactory, as there 
 was such a temptation to live out of the total re- 
 ceipts, instead of laying aside a certain proportion 
 of the takings for a renewal of the stock. 
 
 Perhaps the most useful ways of expending the 
 money were in getting new boots, or strong ser- 
 viceable clothes, or warm shawls for the women, 
 and in procuring tools for the men. The under- 
 standing always was that they should get the 
 work first, and bring us word to that effect on a 
 paper bearing the name of the firm engaging 
 them ; and that then we would provide them with 
 necessary implements. A riveter's kit would take 
 a few shillings only, while a finisher's would cost 
 a pound or more, A spade or pickax would be 
 serviceable to navvies. 
 
 At first I used to go round to employers of labor 
 soliciting employment, and often it took a con- 
 siderable slice out of my morning to go from one 
 factory to another; for this reason I was finally 
 obliged to relinquish the practice, except in special 
 cases. It really was better to promise men to 
 support them for a day or two while they were 
 looking for work for themselves. It encouraged 
 
62 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 their self-reliance, and they were generally bet- 
 ter able to ascertain where they were wanted. I 
 urged them also to come to see me at the coffee- 
 house each morning to tell me how they were 
 going on, that I might hearten them up and in- 
 spire them with fresh courage, or even pray with 
 them. Sometimes I would write a letter for them 
 to take to some friendly employer. It was a 
 matter also of distinct faith on my part in my 
 heavenly Father, that he should help me and 
 cooperate in the saving of these men from relaps- 
 ing into their old ways. Perhaps it would be 
 better and more correct to say that I cooperated 
 with him. When at last the happy moment came 
 that work had been obtained, the necessary tools 
 were purchased, and I felt thankful that one more 
 discouraged soul had the chance of climbing back 
 to respectability and honor. 
 
 It was always most interesting to watch the 
 different use men made of the help afforded them. 
 Sometimes one would hear nothing at all of them 
 for months ; and then suddenly they would appear 
 one morning in the coffee-house, looking happy, 
 smart, and respectable, with a grand story to tell 
 of returning prosperity. In one or two such 
 cases, subscriptions were handed over to me to 
 repay anything which had been expended. And, 
 of course, w^arm words of approval and encourage- 
 ment were given and received. 
 
OUR SYSTEM OF RELIEF 63 
 
 Once as I was walking through one of the 
 principal thoroughfares, a man stopped a dashing 
 pony-trap, and leaping down, shook me warmly 
 by the hand, saying, "Look, sir! You know 
 what you did for me at a certain place : this is 
 what it has led to." He was engaged in a flour- 
 ishing business, to prosecute which he had bought 
 this neat little conveyance. 
 
 Frequently men were too shy to come to me, 
 lest it might revive the memory of their fall ; but 
 I would hear that they were doing well, and freely 
 forgave them for not wishing to identify them- 
 selves with me too closely. 
 
 But, of course, there were many disappoint- 
 ments. Sometimes it would be almost more than 
 I could bear ; and had it not been for the perpet- 
 ual remembrance of the much patience which my 
 Lord had had with me, and how his love had 
 conquered, I could not have borne the terrible 
 disasters with which some of my most hopeful 
 cases met. A man might go on well for a time, 
 and then break out drinking and undo everything, 
 losing situation, self-respect, clothes — everything. 
 In all such cases it was useless even to seem to 
 lose one's temper, and rate the delinquent. To 
 do so would be, perhaps, to drive the tempest- 
 tossed bark from its only haven. Besides, con- 
 science had already used its scourge pretty se- 
 verely. And so I always endeavored to restrain 
 
64 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 any feeling of natural resentment, and allowed my 
 poor proteges to see that their fall had caused me 
 real personal sorrow. The grief of the Christian 
 soul for another's sin is a divine alembic for purg- 
 ing out the grosser elements from that other soul. 
 It is in the tears of Jesus that we best discern the 
 unutterableness of Jerusalem's sin and doom. 
 
 Love alone will save the world. As ijt is with 
 God, so, in our measure, it is with us. Our 
 methods and prophesyings and machinery will 
 fail if they are substituted for love. But where 
 holy love is, if it can endure, at last it wins. Prob- 
 ably there is no criminal, however debased, who 
 is not susceptible to love, and might not be saved 
 by it. Not our love, but the love of God shed 
 abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, 
 
VII. 
 M^ toork as Banker 
 
 " Find thy reward in the thing 
 
 Which thou hast been blest to do ; 
 Let the joy of others cause joy to spring 
 
 Up in thy bosom too! — 
 And if the love of a grateful heart 
 
 As a rich reward be given, 
 Lift thou the love of a grateful heart 
 To the God of love in heaven! " 
 
 MacDonald. 
 
 ONE morning when I reached the prison, I 
 found the clerks in a state of considerable 
 excitement over a man who was to receive about 
 £20, which he had brought in with him in a great 
 medley of coins. There were one or two hand- 
 fuls of them. Now, of course, while it was cus- 
 tomary to hand over to me any money that ac- 
 crued to the prisoners as the result of their good 
 behavior, it was quite impossible to intrust me 
 with their ow^n. That was necessarily handed 
 over to them, and signed for by them. And if I 
 was to get hold of it at all, it had to be by their 
 65 
 
66 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 own deed of gift, and in response to my solicita- 
 tions. Though I could not, therefore, handle that 
 money then, I resolved to keep sharp eyes on the 
 owner, and to get it from him if I could, at the 
 earliest moment. 
 
 As soon as we had got outside the prison gate 
 I saw a little man who had been loitering about 
 accost my protege in a suspiciously familiar man- 
 ner, and there was evidently an attempt on his 
 part to induce the other to go with him to the 
 public-house across the road. However, to my 
 great satisfaction, I saw that my vivid description 
 of all the blessings which would accrue from a 
 breakfast with me at the coffee-house had been 
 sufficiently alluring to enable him to remain stead- 
 fast to his promise to go there. So we all went 
 along together. While, however, my attention 
 was being given to others of my morning party, 
 I suddenly missed the two. I looked up and 
 down the road in vain. There was no trace of 
 them ; and I instantly suspected that probably 
 the little man had a shrewd suspicion of that 
 money, the same as I had, only that he wanted 
 to spend it for his companion in scenes of dissipa- 
 tion and drunkenness. Perhaps they had already 
 entered a public-house. 
 
 As soon as this idea flashed through my mind, I 
 resolved to ransack every public-house in the line 
 of march, so that my friends might not escape me. 
 
MY WORK AS BANKER 6^ 
 
 In dealing with these men one is often reminded 
 of the experiences of the salmon-fisher, who may 
 have hooked a strong and vigorous fish, but has 
 to act with the utmost prudence lest his prey es- 
 cape him and carry off line and hook in his mad 
 rush to his native depths. As the skillful fisher- 
 man willingly plays with his prize for several 
 hours, content to keep but the slenderest hold of 
 it if only he may succeed at last in drawing it 
 into his net, so the fisher for souls must never be 
 disappointed, though at first his best efforts are 
 met with non-success ; he must be prepared to 
 give out line, to wait patiently, sometimes to lose 
 sight of the objects of his solicitude for weeks 
 together ; yet the thread of love may follow them 
 into the deepest, darkest depths, and some day, 
 when they are weary of themselves and of sin, 
 they will feel its gentle drawing and follow it back 
 to your side. 
 
 I went into one or two public-houses without 
 success. At last, as I was beginning to despair, 
 I made for one which I well remember, because, 
 unlike most places of that description, in which 
 ingress and especially egress must be made as 
 easy as possible, the door stood at the top of three 
 stone steps. I pushed it open, and there, sure 
 enough, the two men stood side by side at the 
 bar, with two pewter pots of beer in front of them. 
 They were laughing together; but whether I, or 
 
68 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 their escape from me, was the subject of their 
 merriment, I, of course, could not discover. 
 
 " Ah, my lads," said I, *' you have made a mis- 
 take! This is not my shop. Come along with 
 me, and I will put you right." They looked very 
 disconcerted, and, to use a vulgar expression, 
 " dropped on." However, there was no time for 
 explanation; and as the bar-maid had for a mo- 
 ment left the counter, and no one else was there, I 
 was able to sweep them both out, and down the 
 steps and into the street, before they realized 
 what was happening. I never inquired whether 
 or no that beer was paid for; but if so, I am only 
 thankful to know that by its purchasers at least 
 it was not drunk. Had they but sipped it, I 
 should have had one good tale less to tell ; on the 
 waters of strong drink those two men would have 
 drifted beyond my reach. 
 
 So we all arrived safely at the coffee-house. I 
 secured an extra good breakfast for each of them ; 
 and as I write I think I can see them sitting at 
 the little marble-covered table in the corner, the 
 tall one beside me, the other on my left hand. 
 
 When they were in the middle passage of the 
 breakfast, I suddenly turned to the moneyed man, 
 and said : 
 
 " My friend, you have got well-nigh twenty 
 pounds in your pocket." 
 
 He looked at me keenly, as if to say, " How 
 
MY IVORK AS BANKER 69 
 
 do you know that? and what business is it of 
 yours?" 
 
 The other man also stopped eating, and looked 
 hard at me, evidently suspecting that I should 
 .prove a formidable rival to his plans. 
 
 ** Now," I continued, " I want you to shell out, 
 and hand over to my keeping all the money you 
 have in your pocket. I will give you a receipt 
 for it, and something to go on with ; but will ' stick 
 to ' the rest till we can see what is best to do 
 with it" 
 
 My friend stared at me, and for a little time 
 was lost in a profound reverie, during which his 
 little companion gave signs of evident perturba- 
 tion and excitement. Finally, the great hand of 
 the discharged prisoner dived down into the ca- 
 pacious pocket of his trousers, and brought up a 
 handful of coins, gold, silver, and copper, hetero- 
 geneously mixed together with string, pencil, and 
 other et ceteras. Throwing them all down on the 
 table with a ring, and turning to me, he said : 
 
 ** There's the lot, sir; take care of them for 
 me." So I took possession of the money, care- 
 fully counted it, gave him a receipt, swept it into 
 my pocket, and handed him a couple of shillings 
 for immediate necessities. He said that he was 
 desirous of leaving Leicester shortly, en route for 
 London and New York. We made an appoint- 
 ment of day and hour for meeting at the station, 
 
70 THE BELLS OF IS • 
 
 and in the meanwhile I directed him to a re- 
 spectable place where he would be able to pro- 
 cure lodgings, and induced him to sign the pledge 
 before he left the place. 
 
 At the appointed time I met him at the station, 
 with his money in rather smaller bulk. He met 
 me with a smile, as soon as he saw me come on 
 to the platform. 
 
 '' Sir," said he, '' you have done me the kind- 
 est thing that any one could have done. That 
 money which you took care of was sent me by 
 my brother, who is doing well in New York City, 
 for me to come over to him to make a new start. 
 I have been a bad 'un, I can tell you. But it's 
 about time that I did make a new start, and that's 
 what I have determined to do." 
 
 " I am glad-to hear it," I replied. 
 
 •* Yes, sir," said he; *' I thought things over a 
 good bit when I was in yon place, and made up 
 my mind that I would never touch the drink 
 again. That's been my downfall, you see. If I 
 can only keep from the drink, my brother says 
 he will make a man of me." 
 
 Something in my look and manner probably 
 recalled to him the scene in the public-house, 
 and he added : 
 
 '* You remember that man — him that met me 
 when I came out? He meant me no good. He 
 knew that I had got a lot of ' the needful,* and 
 he came to help me spend it. I am glad you 
 
MY IVORK AS BANKER J I 
 
 saved me from him ; he soon dropped off when 
 he saw that you had cleared me out. I don't 
 care if I never see him again. But it was a close 
 shave that morning." 
 
 ** A very close shave ; but how did you come 
 to let him take you in there?" 
 
 ** I don't know, sir; but I am one of those easy- 
 going chaps, and it's so hard to say * No.' " 
 
 Then I told him about the keeping power of 
 the Lord Jesus, and how he is willing to enter in 
 and hold the door of our hearts against the foe ; 
 and I begged him to hand the keeping of his 
 soul over to him. 
 
 The train was nearly due ; but it suddenly oc- 
 curred to me that I might get him a Testament, 
 and I went across for one to the bookstall. I 
 could find nothing but a copy of the Revised 
 New Testament, which I bought, and wrote his 
 name and mine on the front page, adding the 
 words, " Meet me at the gate of the Golden City." 
 
 His train then came into the station ; and he 
 entered the carriage with many an expression of 
 thankfulness, and a solemn promise that it should 
 be indeed a new and blessed beginning. 
 
 I know nothing more of him, though I have 
 often wondered what has been his record since ; 
 but I trust that among those who will welcome 
 me there, I shall meet again that man to whom I 
 waved good-by as his train steamed out toward 
 London. 
 
VIII. 
 ^ Brace of £om\5 
 
 ** Follow with reverent steps the great example 
 Of Him whose holy work was ' doing good.' 
 So shall the wide earth seem our Father's temple, 
 Each loving life a psalm of gratitude!" 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 JUST one more incident I will relate to show 
 the gratitude with which my poor efforts were 
 repaid by these discharged criminals, when the 
 grace of God touched their hearts. 
 
 On one occasion I was preaching in a Primitive 
 Methodist chapel in Leicestershire. It was a sum- 
 mer's evening, and the place was very crowded. 
 At the close of the service the people lingered, 
 and I went down from the pulpit among them. 
 Some one said to me : 
 
 ** There are three of your men here, sir." 
 
 I guessed what was meant, and asked,** Where?" 
 
 Two were pointed out to me on the right side 
 
 of the building. On coming out of jail they had 
 
 signed the pledge, and on returning to their vil- 
 
 72 
 
A BRACE OF FOIVLS y^ 
 
 lage had been saved through the Salvation Army, 
 for the work of which I praise God. They had 
 risen to become officers, and looked thoroughly 
 nice, bright fellows. 
 
 What a blessing would come to our churches 
 if only they were to insist, as the Salvation Army 
 does, on all their members binding themselves to 
 total abstinence! What a marvelous accession 
 of spiritual and moral power would accrue if all 
 Christian people would rank themselves on the 
 side of total abstinence, as a safeguard for them- 
 selves and their children, and as a protest against 
 the giant evil of our time, the mother of all woes ! 
 The strength of the Salvation Army is largely 
 due to its freedom from drink and smoking, as its 
 lessons of self-control ; and to its teaching that 
 the power of Christ can deliver from the power 
 of sin and destroy the works of the devil. 
 
 I shall never forget going on one Easter Mon- 
 day to the old barracks at Leicester, to see an ex- 
 hibition of idols. In my innocence I supposed 
 that they were missionary trophies from the South 
 Seas or India, To my surprise, there was noth- 
 ing of the kind ; but something even more prac- 
 tical, interesting, and striking. For, at the most 
 solemn part of the service, six men went to the 
 rear of the platform, and brought out six large 
 sheets of cardboard, each of which was covered 
 with pipes, tobacco-pouches, cigarette-holders, 
 
74 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 dog-whistles, ribbons, bows, trinkets, and many 
 other things, all of which had been surrendered 
 as having obstructed the growth of the inner life. 
 Would that all who are so eager to destroy the 
 gods of the heathen were equally watchful to 
 keep themselves from idols! 
 
 My third friend was on the other side of the 
 chapel, and I made my way to him. On coming 
 up to the end of the little pew where he was 
 standing, he took my hand in his, and, falling on 
 his knees, kissed it. I confess that it made the 
 choking sensation come in my throat. And 
 among the many marks of gratitude for help given 
 in the hour of need, I do not think that any ever 
 made a deeper impression. Then, rising to his 
 feet, he said : 
 
 ''Bide a bit, sir." 
 
 In another moment he had passed me and shot 
 out of the door, leaving me in the midst of the 
 people, who seemed unusually interested and 
 amused, as they crowded round. I noticed this, 
 and rather wondered at it, but did not feel per- 
 turbed. God has ever allowed me to realize in 
 a very distinct way in my life the presence and 
 ministry of his angels; and I can record that in 
 all my dealings with men in drunken frenzies, and 
 with crowds, as well as in my many journeyings 
 by land and water, they have always formed 
 around me an inviolable cordon of protection. 
 
A BRACE OF FOWLS 75 
 
 Charge seems to have been given them concern- 
 ing me, to keep me in all my ways. 
 
 In a moment or two the man returned through 
 the chapel doorway, bearing in triumph a living 
 token of his gratitude. At first I could hardly 
 realize what it was ; but on closer inspection it 
 proved to be a couple of live fowls, which, hang- 
 ing head downward, were, one from each hand, 
 flapping and swaying about in a most extraordi- 
 nary manner. Advancing to me, he said : 
 
 "You must take these home with you, sir." 
 
 '' Not likely," said I ; '' I couldn't think of tak- 
 ing such a gift from a working-man." 
 
 ** A}^, but ye must take them ; ye have done 
 me a sight more good than the gift of these fowls 
 will do me harm," was the reply. 
 
 And then I learned that he had been forty 
 times in jail through drink, but on the last occa- 
 sion had signed the pledge with me and kept it ; 
 had been rapidly regaining his lost place in the 
 little village ; and was beginning to prosper in a 
 small way. He, too, had given his heart to God, 
 and was living a Christian life. 
 
 Now, I was in a considerable dilemma. On 
 the one hand, I did not want to hurt this man's 
 feelings ; on the other, I did not know what to 
 do with these two fowls. I should have to take 
 them some distance home, and I did not feel sure 
 of being able to kill them when I got them there. 
 
^6 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 I knew, too, that my servant was very timid, and 
 I felt sure that neither of us could wring their 
 necks. Death by beheading, strangulation, or 
 drowning was, of course, possible; but I felt 
 that I could not be the executioner. I suggested 
 my difficulty to my friend, amid the laughter of 
 the people, who could not understand how the 
 man who did not scruple to attack the devil and 
 his kingdom was so afraid of inflicting pain on 
 these two birds. Certainly I should never have 
 shot the albatross of which Coleridge sings. 
 
 " I'll soon put that right," he said, as he again 
 disappeared. In a few moments he was back 
 again, having committed the double murder on 
 the doorstep of that little chapel. He carried 
 those birds to the station, and I carried them 
 home in triumph up the main thoroughfare of 
 Leicester, amid the amazement of the passers-by, 
 who at first sight may have thought I had turned 
 sportsman, and was carrying home partridges or 
 pheasants. But they soon saw it was neither, 
 though I was as self-satisfied as if it were my first 
 brace of grouse. 
 
 They were very good eating indeed. I ate one, 
 and some friends ate the other. They needed 
 no sauce, because of the fragrant kindness of the 
 donor. I did think of preserving some part of 
 the plumage ; yet why should I ? for I need no 
 outward symbol of that man's love ; it lingers still 
 
A BRACE OF FOIVLS JJ 
 
 in my heart, as the aromatic scent in the drawer 
 where it has lain in years gone by. These are 
 the things that sweeten Hfe, and give it meaning, 
 and come back again and again on the memory 
 with unabated loveliness. Oh, that I were as 
 true and tender to thee, my divine Master, as 
 many of these saved ones were to me ! 
 
IX. 
 JJrison^rs' ^ib Societies 
 
 " Man is dear to man! the poorest poor 
 Long for some moments in a weary life 
 When they can know and feel that they have been 
 Themselves the fathers and the dealers-out 
 Of some small blessings — have been kind to such 
 As needed kindness." 
 
 \YORDSWORTH. 
 
 SHORTLY after I had commenced my work, 
 I learned that there had been an endeavor on 
 the part of some philanthropic men among the 
 magistrates and others to organize a branch of 
 the Prisoners' Aid Society; but that their efforts 
 had failed in consequence of there being no one 
 who was specially suited or willing to do the 
 practical work. This want was now met, and 
 there was no further reason why they should de- 
 lay giving practical effect to their intentions. 
 
 Accordingly, a meeting was held at the instance 
 
 of my valued friend, W. J. Freer, Esq., whose legal 
 
 status gave him unusual influence with the visiting 
 
 justices and other leading men; and a branch 
 
 78 
 
PRISONERS' AID SOCIETIES 79 
 
 society was formed, of which he was appointed 
 honorary secretary, and I honorary agent. 
 
 The Prisoners' Aid Society is now recognized 
 by the authorities, works in conjunction with 
 them, and is even subsidized up to a certain 
 amount from a central fund. When a long-term 
 prisoner is to be discharged, he has a claim not 
 only for the mark-money, of which I have already 
 spoken, and which may amount to £1 or £^, but 
 on the recommendation of the governor he may 
 also receive additional help to the amount of ;^i 
 or £1 I OS. from the central fund. Where a branch 
 of the Prisoners' Aid Society is in existence, this 
 money is handed over to the agent to expend it 
 to the best advantage. This gives him some in- 
 fluence over the newly liberated, and keeps the 
 two in touch at least till all the money is expended. 
 
 I was very much impressed with the results of 
 the prison discipHne on these long-term men. Of 
 course there were not so many of them as of the 
 others. But, with very few exceptions, there was 
 a remarkable gravity and seriousness manifest in 
 their bearing. They were evidently deeply in 
 earnest to make good the resolutions they had 
 formed during the months of confinement. And 
 in many cases they spoke with high appreciation 
 of the benefit they had received from the services 
 of the chaplain, and from their attendance in the 
 prison chapel. I believe that in scores of instances 
 
8o THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 such men are being converted to God by the 
 Spirit of God working freely through the silence 
 of the cell, and through such other voices as speak 
 from time to time to their hearts. 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the importance 
 of the appointment of really converted and godly 
 men to the post of chaplain. It is a thousand 
 pities when ritual or form takes the place of simple 
 gospel teaching, and when such great opportuni- 
 ties are intrusted to men who are perfunctory and 
 careless, ignorant of the way of life themselves, 
 and unable to instruct others. No one can esti- 
 mate the marvelous change which would pass 
 over the criminal population of the country if all 
 the prison pulpits were occupied by men of God, 
 intent on the salvation of the lost and fallen 
 through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 There is much to be said on behalf of the sys- 
 tem which obtains in Canada, where my friend, the 
 late Mr. W. H. Howland, ex-mayor of Toronto, 
 told me that he and others had access to the pris- 
 ons on Sunday, for the purpose of holding Bible- 
 classes among the inmates; the result of which 
 had appeared in some marvelous conversions to 
 God. 
 
 I am happy to say that my relations with the 
 late Rev. Mr. James, chaplain of the Leicester 
 jail, were of the most pleasant description. We 
 worked together for the salvation of those who 
 
PRISONERS' AID SOCIETIES 8 1 
 
 came under our hands, sorrowing together over 
 our failures, and rejoicing in common successes. 
 He did his work with simplicity and grace, and 
 was often spoken of in the highest terms by those 
 who had benefited by his teachings and influence, 
 in the cell quite as much as in the chapel. 
 
 It is quite refreshing to look back to those happy 
 mornings. I can fancy myself now stepping 
 through the little doorway into the prison, nar- 
 rowly watched by the crowd outside. The gate- 
 keeper would have some pleasant welcome. Then 
 I would instantly turn to the row of men and 
 women waiting for discharge, and perhaps go to 
 speak a few hearty words to them. Then to the 
 office to write their names in my book, and learn 
 any particulars about them to guide me afterward. 
 And it is only fair to acknowledge here the great 
 kindness and civility received from the clerks, who 
 always treated me as a friend. In the meanwhile 
 the strains of music and singing from above warn 
 us that the service is closing; and shortly the 
 chaplain comes to say farewell to those who are 
 about to leave him, and to impress on one or two 
 of the more hopeful his parting advice. And 
 now down the long corridor leading from the 
 private house are heard the quick steps of the 
 governor himself, as he comes for the discharge, 
 accompanied by a magnificent dog whom I had 
 known from a puppy, and who was either a for- 
 
82 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 midable foe or an affectionate friend. Then 
 began the discharge, which I have already de- 
 scribed. 
 
 Once a month there was a meeting of the Pris- 
 oners' Aid Society, after the visiting justices had 
 gone their usual round. Many of them stayed 
 to the meeting ; and it was encouraging to receive 
 the tokens of good-will and appreciation from 
 men whose titles and positions were the patents 
 of real nobihty, as well as from one's fellow- 
 townsmen. At these meetings a report was given 
 of the work of the previous month, money was 
 voted, and special cases were discussed. 
 
 The Prisoners' Aid Societies only deal with the 
 long-term cases. Perhaps that system cannot be 
 improved on in deaHng with public money ; but 
 it is a great mistake for any town to be content 
 with dealing with these cases only. The short- 
 term prisoners may include many of the incor- 
 rigibles, but they also include large numbers of 
 first offenders. These are terribly ashamed as 
 they emerge from prison. They are also full of 
 good resolutions, which, if only they are enabled 
 to carry them out, will bar their return to jail. 
 They have been suddenly disillusionized, and are 
 startled to see the real character of their life, and 
 look eagerly around for some door of hope, some 
 ladder by which to climb again to honor and 
 respectability. *' A stitch in time," with these, 
 
PRISONERS' AID SOCIETIES 83 
 
 ''will save nine." If the first breaking in of the 
 river through the dam is stayed, it will be possi- 
 ble to save the dyke, and hold back the volume 
 of water behind. Important as it is to deal with 
 old offenders, it is doubly so to arrest those who 
 have taken but the first step in forbidden paths, 
 and whose hearts are yet open to the sting of re- 
 morse and regret. So I had them all alike to the 
 coiTee-house, giving special attention to the long- 
 term men ; but entertaining all, speaking with all, 
 and endeavoring to do my best to give all another 
 start in the world. 
 
 I have never cared much to compute or print 
 statistics; they are a very inadequate gauge of 
 work done ; but I am always glad to recall a state- 
 ment which was one day made to me, that the 
 numbers in Leicester Prison had gone down to 
 the extent of there being fifty prisoners less at the 
 close of three or four years' work, than when I 
 began to visit it. In other words, a large num- 
 ber of the old incorrigibles had been converted 
 and reclaimed, and were no longer turning up 
 time after time for being drunk and disorderly. 
 And if they did come back, I really believe that 
 the shame of meeting me was, in some cases, al- 
 most as great a punishment as the days or weeks 
 of confinement 
 
 The formation of this branch of the Prisoners' 
 Aid Society enabled us to appeal to our fellow- 
 
84 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 townsmen for funds. Before this I had received 
 what was forwarded to me privately ; but after- 
 ward I had no longer any thought or care on the 
 score of subscriptions, which were always forth- 
 coming, and were given with good-will. Ah, 
 Leicester men of business, I shall never forget 
 your generous appreciation of my poor work, 
 culminating as it did in the pubhc presentation 
 of that illuminated address — which is one of my 
 priceless treasures — and of the purse of four hun- 
 dred guineas. But I dare not begin writing thus, 
 as it threatens to tear open old wounds and make 
 them bleed afresh. How did I come ever to 
 leave that town ! — into the very fabric of which 
 my heart seemed woven, and in the soil of which 
 I have often thought I would like at last to lie 
 amid the men and women and children whom 
 I knew and lived for. But He has ordered it 
 otherwise, and I am more than content: for a 
 wide door and effectual is opened to me for min- 
 istry, and I am surrounded with noble and true 
 friends; but I can never forget the old ones, or 
 the common interests which confederate the citi- 
 zens of towns that are not too huge or unwieldy 
 to lose the sense of solidarity. 
 
 Since I left the town, the Prisoners' Aid So- 
 ciety has continued its noble work, and has 
 gathered around it many devoted helpers, who 
 supplement the labors of its efficient and pains- 
 
PRISONERS' AID SOCIETIES 85 
 
 taking agent, Mr. W. H. Morris. It is a great 
 gratification to me to know that the little slip I 
 planted In fear and trembling, beneath their care- 
 ful tendance is becoming a strong and healthy 
 tree. 
 
X. 
 
 M^ ^ciatioMB toitl) tl)e publicans 
 
 ' * Draw through all failure to the perfect flower ; 
 Draw through all darkness to the perfect light ; 
 Yea, let the rapture of thy spring-tide thrill 
 Through me, beyond me, till its ardor fill 
 
 The ungrowing souls that know not thee aright, 
 That thy great love may make of me, e'en me, 
 One added link to bind the world to thee." 
 
 E. S. A. 
 
 AT this point I should Hke to give some few 
 ■^-~^ details of the relations into which my work 
 at the prison gate brought me with the Leices- 
 ter liquor dealers. Before I commenced it, I had 
 been deeply interested in a Blue Ribbon Mission 
 conducted by a prominent evangelist, in which, 
 during a campaign of three months' duration in 
 Leicester and the neighborhood, we had succeeded 
 in obtaining no less than one hundred thousand 
 signatures to the pledge and adopters of the Blue 
 Ribbon badge. I was chairman of the committee 
 which arranged this campaign, and was therefore 
 brought to close dealings with the proprietors of 
 86 
 
MY RELATIONS IVITH THE PUBLICANS 87 
 
 the great vested interests which we attacked ; and 
 often my experiences were far from pleasant. 
 
 On one occasion, for instance, I received a 
 threatening letter with skull and cross-bones at- 
 tached to it, in which the writer urged me to ab- 
 stain from further agitation, at peril of my receiv- 
 ing physical injury from those whom he and others 
 were resolved to employ. On another occasion 
 it was deemed necessary that I should be accom- 
 panied home through certain streets, because feel- 
 ing was running very high through our attacks 
 upon the liquor traffic. And, in point of fact, 
 the publican party were suffering such serious 
 losses in their trade from the reformation which 
 had come over some of their best customers, that 
 they had every reason to be seriously annoyed. 
 
 Money which had been hitherto expended on 
 drink was now taken to butcher, baker, shoemaker, 
 and other tradesmen, for the purchase of neces- 
 saries for women and children. It was said, for 
 instance, by one butcher in a poorer district of 
 the town, that on former Saturdays he had been 
 accustomed to provide some of the commoner 
 parts of meat from which women might pick their 
 little pieces for the following day ; but that, dur- 
 ing that Mission, so much gold was brought to 
 him for the best joints of meat, that he found it 
 difficult to get it changed ! So I was not in very 
 good odor with the publican party when it fell 
 
88 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 to my lot to undertake the mission at the prison 
 gate. And yet, for some wonderful reason, after 
 I commenced there was a decided revulsion of 
 feeling ; and I am glad to say, on behalf of the 
 publicans themselves, that, for the most part, they 
 seemed cordially in favor of the work of reclama- 
 tion in which I was engaged, so that on more than 
 one occasion they furnished me with monetary, 
 as well as practical, help. 
 
 Of course, the owner of the public-house im- 
 mediately opposite the prison gate could not look 
 with complacency upon the work which was turn- 
 ing the tide of custom from himself to the coffee- 
 house, and diminishing his yearly revenue by 
 quite ;^ioo. Very often little parties would sally 
 forth from his bar parlor, to accost and, if possi- 
 ble, induce the men and women that were coming 
 out of jail to leave me and go with them. On 
 several occasions we seemed in danger of di fracas 
 in the public road, as the two parties were en- 
 gaged in wrangling over some undecided indi- 
 vidual, who was not unwilling to leave the result 
 to be determined by strength of will or muscle. 
 
 In all such conflicts, however, one was con- 
 scious of having the sympathy of even the lower 
 and more disorderly classes, who would often 
 advise these people to come with me, saying, 
 '' He's all right ; you need not fear to go with 
 him." And I am afraid that sometimes people 
 
MY RELATIONS IVITH THE PUBLICAMS 89 
 
 came to me with a secret understanding that 
 when they had got all they could they intended 
 to return to the public-house. 
 
 Sometimes I would go to see after my men 
 in public-house parlors, and have always been 
 kindly received. And if it had been possible, I 
 should not have flinched from spending my hours 
 at night in these places, conversing with the in- 
 mates and showing them that Christian men were 
 prepared to come wherever there was an oppor- 
 tunity of influencing the dupes of intemperance 
 for a nobler, purer life. On one occasion, I re- 
 member, a liquor dealer sent for me to adjust a 
 dispute in his household, and arbitrate between 
 himself and one of his servants. The more one 
 knows of the curse that the drink brings with it 
 to those that sell it, the more one pities liquor 
 dealers and their families. Many of them have 
 been employed in respectable households and 
 brought up under Christian influences ; but when 
 once embarked in this traffic, they lose all respect 
 for themselves and all hope of living a Christian 
 life, and become henceforth condemned in their 
 consciences and hardened in their hearts. Would 
 that .all Christians would do their utmost to sup- 
 port the agitation on behalf of the Sunday closing 
 of public-houses; if not in the interests of the 
 community at large, at least in those of the deal- 
 ers themselves. 
 
90 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 One amusing incident happened toward the 
 close of my Leicester work. One morning there 
 came out of jail the keeper of a neighboring ceme- 
 tery, who was therefore something more respect- 
 able than the ordinary run of those that came 
 into my hands. He accepted my invitation to 
 come to the coffee-house, where he was met by 
 his wife and two daughters, and, as they seemed 
 well-to-do people, I conducted them from the 
 lower hall, in which my men generally partook 
 of their breakfast, into an upper room where they 
 could enjoy comparative privacy. The whole 
 party was at once provided with the usual coffee, 
 rolls, and ham ; and the breakfast was proceed- 
 ing merrily when I sat down in the midst of the 
 little party and said : 
 
 ** My friend, what do you say to signing the 
 pledge this morning? You know as well as I do 
 that you have been falling under the power of 
 drink, or you would never have come into this 
 position." 
 
 *'Well, sir," said he, "I can tell you I have 
 been thinking a lot about it since I've been in 
 yon place, and have almost made up my mind 
 to chuck the whole thing up." 
 
 "You will sign the pledge, then? " said I. 
 
 ''Yes," said he; ''but I'll tell you what— I 
 have made up my mind to have a pint of porter 
 first" 
 
MY RELATIONS IVITH THE PUBLICANS 9 1 
 
 "A pint of porter! " said I in dismay. '* What's 
 the good of waking up the thirst for it, when you 
 have been all these days free?" 
 
 " Well," said he, " it would be a wrong thing 
 for a man to make a vow and not keep to it." 
 
 " But aren't there some vows better broken 
 than kept?" said I. ''Don't you remember, in 
 the Bible, that Herod made a vow of which he 
 repented? Come, my friend, you'd better break 
 a bad vow than keep it, any day." 
 
 "No," said he; "I'm one of those men that 
 can be led, but not driven — ain't I, wife? " as he 
 looked toward her with a scowl. 
 
 "Yes," said the wife meekly ; " w^e know that." 
 
 " Well," said I, " if you have that pint of por- 
 ter, will you give me your solemn word and honor 
 that you will sign the pledge immediately after; 
 and will you give me your hand upon it? " 
 
 He said, " All right, sir," and he grasped my 
 hand. 
 
 Now% I was in such a position that I did not 
 dare to send any of the men who were at that 
 time assisting me into the public-house hard by, 
 to get that pint of porter ; and I knew that there 
 was no one on the premises belonging to the 
 coffee-house company whom I could employ for 
 such a purpose. And so, as there was nothing 
 else to do, I caught up the first jug that was 
 within reach and sallied forth to the public- house 
 
92 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 at the opposite corner, to get this pint of porter. 
 I think it was nearly the only time in my Hfe that 
 I had purchased porter at a public-house, and I 
 felt very strange. The bar-maid who served me 
 looked at me with such amazement that I think 
 she supposed that I had suddenly lost my reason. 
 I assured her, however, that this was the final 
 pint ; and explained to her that it was not for 
 myself, but for a man in whom I was deeply in- 
 terested. 
 
 On arriving again at my little breakfast-party, 
 with the jug and glass in hand, I poured the por- 
 ter out as quietly as possible, without the '* head " 
 which porter drinkers are accustomed to appre- 
 ciate. He took the glass and began to drink. 
 At each gulp, his wife, daughter, and I gave such 
 a unanimous groan that, after two or three efforts, 
 he put down the remainder, and said : 
 
 '* This is the miserablest pint of porter that I 
 ever drank. Where's your card, sir? I may as 
 well sign it as drink any more." 
 
 And so he signed the pledge, and afterward 
 obtained a situation as a gardener, not very far 
 from Melbourne Hall. One of my working-men 
 friends, who heard the story and had become in- 
 terested in him, went a mile out of his way each 
 Sunday morning to fetch him to the service, with 
 the result that he was shortly after converted to 
 God. Before I left Leicester, I had the pleasure 
 
MY RELATIONS IVITH THE PUBLICANS 93 
 
 of meeting him and his wife, looking perfectly 
 transformed and radiant with thankfulness for 
 the blessing which had been brought into their 
 lot. 
 
 This incident, somehow, got into the local 
 papers, and sent a laugh, at my expense, all 
 through Leicester. But a more serious result 
 was that I received a letter from the coffee-house 
 company — whether in joke or earnest I never 
 could quite make out — asking me that I should 
 never again use their precious crockery for carry- 
 ing anything stronger than coffee. Of course I 
 wrote a very polite and humble letter back. But 
 I am not sure whether I would not repeat the 
 offense if I had the chance ; and I would be pre- 
 pared to do a great deal more if I could only 
 induce another man to sign the pledge, and aban- 
 don the use of that greatest foe of domestic 
 blessedness and manly virtue. 
 
 Once more, as I close this reminiscence, I would 
 urge on all Christian people who may read these 
 words the duty which is incumbent upon them 
 of coming up to the help of the Lord against the 
 mighty; of abandoning at their own tables and 
 in their own use this accursed thing ; and of tak- 
 ing a pronounced and active interest in the cause 
 of Christian Total Abstinence. It is, of course, 
 wise to set on foot all those agencies which will 
 improve the well-being of the people, for it is cer- 
 
94 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 tain that adverse social and physical conditions 
 conduce very much to the use of intoxicants; 
 but there is probably no other way of saving 
 those who have already fallen into this fatal habit, 
 than by abjuring the use of alcohol for one's self, 
 and then exerting that personal influence which 
 is so often the means, in the hands of God, of 
 winning a sinner from the error of his ways, and 
 covering a multitude of sins. 
 
XI. 
 ** J)rot)ibence i^ouse'' 
 
 " I am glad to think 
 I am not bound to make the world go right ; 
 But only to discover and to do, 
 With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints. 
 
 I will trust in him, 
 That he can hold his own." 
 
 Jean Ingelow. 
 
 WHEN I commenced my mission at the prison 
 gate, I endeavored to find work for m.y pro- 
 teges by going with them to various manufacturers 
 that were known to me, and to others who were 
 not so well known. And I will say, with grati- 
 tude, that I was received with uniform kindness; 
 and in many cases every endeavor was made to 
 help me. But it was not entirely satisfactory — 
 partly because the heads of the firms left their 
 departments almost entirely to their managers, 
 with whom they did not care to interfere ; and 
 partly because it was often prejudicial to a work- 
 man to seem too entirely under the patronage of 
 ''a parson." Besides this, I had no opportunity 
 95 
 
96 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 of keeping in touch with men who needed my 
 help and guidance. And, in addition, it consumed 
 so much of my time to go round the town from 
 one to another, waiting to see those who could 
 help me. 
 
 Of course there were a great many cases in 
 which men who came out of prison went back to 
 their former berths, or were able to find employ- 
 ment for themselves. I am not no\v speaking of 
 these ; but of those who had no employment to 
 turn to, and perhaps no trade at their fingers' 
 ends by which to support themselves. This latter 
 was rather a numerous class ; and I found it most 
 needful to set all such to work as soon as possi- 
 ble, before they relapsed, under the pressure of 
 their companions, into their former sins. 
 
 This led me to wonder whether it might not 
 be possible to start some kind of manufacture of 
 my own, in which I could employ and super- 
 vise those who gave signs of being willing to help 
 themselves if an opportunity were offered them. 
 The first attempt was made in a cellar, where two 
 men started chopping wood and making it up in 
 bundles. The only outlay, so far, was in chop- 
 pers, string, etc., and I was encouraged to go for- 
 ward. Next to this, a small factory was taken, 
 with a room below and one above, where we 
 were able to employ more hands, and began to 
 do a much larger trade. One of my working- 
 
''PROVIDENCE HOUSE'' 97 
 
 men, who was a shoe-finisher, kindly brought his 
 work away from his own home, and did it on the 
 premises, looking after the men at the same time. 
 The goods were taken out first in a truck, and 
 then by a small pony-cart ; and though I did not 
 make any profit, there was no loss, and it seemed 
 as if we were on the right track. 
 
 There was one lack, however — we had the men 
 during the day, but we had not sufficient control 
 over them at night ; and it seemed that if only 
 we could have a place where they might work 
 during the day and sleep at night, without the 
 necessity of going out for any purpose whatever, 
 it might be the means of delivering them from 
 temptation, and at the same time of instilling into 
 their minds the principles of the gospel of the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 While these thoughts were passing through 
 my head, I happened to hear of a large disused 
 yard and workshops, formerly occupied by a 
 builder and contractor, and to be had at a re- 
 duced rent. I went to see them, and at once 
 felt that this was the very accommodation we 
 required. The premises were within a quarter 
 of an hour's walk from my house. On the left 
 hand of the entrance was a house which would 
 suit well for the manager, and for the nucleus of 
 a Boys' Refuge in the upper story. Going down 
 the yard, on the right, was a stable with a loft, 
 
98 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 that could be adapted for a mess-room and sleep- 
 ing-room ; while at the end of the yard was a long 
 workshop, open below, but closed in the upper 
 room, in which I could carry on all my work. 
 A long wall running on the right-hand side of 
 the yard, opposite the stable before mentioned, 
 afforded ample opportunity for the erection of 
 separate wooden workshops, as soon as all our 
 space in the more permanent building was occu- 
 pied. But the rent was i^ioo per annum. 
 
 It was vain to think of linking on so great a 
 work to the Prisoners' Aid Society ; nor did I 
 feel able to form a separate committee for this 
 special agency. It was laid on my heart, there- 
 fore, to assume the entire responsibility, with no 
 treasurer but the Lord himself. I did not under- 
 take it without much thought and prayer. Like 
 Peter, I kept saying, '' If it be thou, bid me 
 come!" Then I waited for his reply. 
 
 It came at last. I was in the train on my way 
 to spend two or three days at Llandudno, when 
 as distinctly as possible I became conscious of 
 the impression that I was to go forward ; and 
 that my God would be my treasurer and guide, 
 failing me in no good thing, but leading me for- 
 ward a step at a time. It is a glad thing for a 
 man w^hen he receives such an intimation as I did 
 then. Nothing can hurt him, nothing daunt. All 
 his need is met as it arises from those inexhaust- 
 
''PROVIDENCE HOUSE" 99 
 
 ible stores ; and he realizes that the work is no 
 longer his, but God's through him, and that the 
 whole weight of the responsibility is on the shoul- 
 ders that bear the worlds. This is my record to 
 the glory of God — that he never failed me. I had 
 to use some of my own capital for that business ; 
 I passed through some terrific difficulties ; I had 
 much to plan and arrange ; there was a great 
 expenditure of time and energy ; but I never re- 
 gret having gone into it. There are fruits of the 
 work existing in many places ; and when I left 
 Leicester, it was so arranged, through the good- 
 ness of God, that every penny of my private in- 
 come was replaced, so that I was not one tittle 
 the poorer than when I started on an enterprise 
 which to the eye of sense seemed altogether 
 quixotic and absurd. If a man is sure that he is 
 on God's plan, let him go forward, stepping down 
 even on the waves — he cannot be ashamed. On 
 my return from Llandudno — it was a Saturday 
 afternoon, which I remember well — I sat down 
 and wrote my acceptance of this big place, at 
 this annual rental, for the term of three years ; 
 and also made an entry in my diary that I under- 
 took it in partnership with God, as a member in 
 a great firm or fellowship, in which the division 
 was thus — he to find all the money and guidance 
 necessary ; I to yield my brain and hands that he 
 might use them to execute his designs. That 
 
lOO THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 evening a friend gave me my first donation, of 
 ;^20. I received it with deep emotion. It ap- 
 peared to be so evidently the Lord's assurance ; 
 and I determined to call the place " Providence 
 House." 
 
 The process of adaptation took some little 
 time. The drains of the stable were plugged up 
 with cement, the stalls removed, and the place 
 transformed into a comfortable mess-room and 
 kitchen, with cooking- range. The harness-room 
 was turned into a lavatory. The hay-loft was 
 fitted up with nineteen beds, after necessary alter- 
 ations and enlargement. A number of beds were 
 also put into the upper rooms of the manager's 
 house. 
 
 In the workshop a crank for hand labor was 
 erected to turn the circular saw, with which it 
 was connected through a fly-wheel and leathern 
 bands. And along the wall a number of cozy 
 wooden workshops were put up, in which men 
 might sit, working alone, and tying the chopped 
 wood into bundles. 
 
 The neighbors heard of my intentions with dis- 
 may. The idea that I should establish a settle- 
 ment of jail-birds in the midst of so respectable 
 a quarter ! Landlords wrote remonstrating with 
 me for bringing down the price of property. 
 Town councilors were urged to bring the matter 
 forward in the municipal meeting. And lock- 
 
''PROVIDENCE HOUSE" lOI 
 
 smiths had quite a busy time of it in making good 
 old and broken locks, fitting keys, and preparing 
 against a siege, if the need should arise. Thank 
 God, the event proved that none of these prepa- 
 rations were needed. No harm came of my little 
 settlement. In time prejudice was disarmed; 
 and the people would open their windows at our 
 prayer times, that they might hear our men sing 
 the praises of God. 
 
 But, on the other hand, my own people had 
 begun to take an unexpected interest in the work. 
 The ladies looked after the furnishing. One gave 
 all the blankets, a second the sheets, a third the 
 coverlets. Some gave one thing, some another, as 
 the Lord prompted them. Difficulties were over- 
 come with the sanitary authorities and others; 
 and at last the opening day came, and the Dedi- 
 cation Service. This service was held in the 
 upper room of the long workshop, and the place 
 was formally handed over to God for his use and 
 blessing ; and he at least never forgot that it was 
 from the first thus intrusted to him. After the 
 meeting, the people went all around, inspecting 
 the arrangements, and full of interest and expec- 
 tancy as to the results. 
 
 We then began to fill up the beds, and to take 
 in likely cases. There was no difficulty in this, 
 as we had a constant stream pouring out of the 
 prison, besides many old hands. Our first idea 
 
102 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 was to feed the men as part of their earnings; 
 but we found that each man preferred to be his 
 own cook. So we ultimately arranged to pay 
 about one shilling and threepence for hand labor 
 in turning the crank, and about one shilling and 
 sixpence for making up bundles. Out of this we 
 expected fourpence to be returned to us for the 
 bed, and the rest was largely used to provide 
 food. If there were a surplus, we received it, 
 allowing it to accumulate toward the purchase of 
 articles of clothing. 
 
 Thus the men lived with us — working in the 
 sheds during the day ; sleeping under our roof at 
 night : and constantly plied with those high and 
 holy motives which come from repeated services 
 and contact with Christian men. The latter is a 
 principle of the highest importance in redemptive 
 work; and it has been largely adopted by the 
 Moravians, whose " brothers " work beside those 
 whom they would save, esteeming it a sufficient 
 reward if by their presence they can stay the 
 spread of corruption, or instill the precepts of the 
 gospel of Christ. 
 
XII. 
 1 jBecome a Sixc^mooh illercl)ant 
 
 " Nay, best it is, indeed, 
 To spend ourselves upon the general good ; 
 And, oft misunderstood, 
 
 To strive to lift the limbs, and knees that bleed ; 
 
 This is the best, the fullest meed. 
 Let ignorance assail or hatred sneer ; 
 Who loves his race, he shall not fear." 
 
 Lewis Morris. 
 
 AND SO it befell that I became a Fire-wood 
 i~^ Merchant, and had faint hopes of making 
 my fortune! I purchased two horses and three 
 carts, which went out laden with fire-wood two 
 or three times a day, in charge of my drivers, 
 who usually disposed of their stock. And the 
 Leicester folk awoke amusedly to see '' F. B. 
 Meyer, Fire-wood Merchant," among the 
 other businesses for which that famous town 
 was noted. 
 
 At first the anxiety was very oppressive ; and 
 I sometimes wonder how I was able to bear the 
 strain of it, combined with my work at the prison, 
 103 
 
104 T^^ BELLS OF IS 
 
 which I never neglected, and my preaching, pas- 
 toral, and other ministerial duties. For at that 
 time Melbourne Hall, with all its great opera- 
 tions, was in full work ; and I had each Sunday 
 night a crowded audience of about fifteen hun- 
 dred people, of which thoughtful men formed a 
 large proportion. 
 
 It was not always easy to keep up a supply of 
 wood with a comparatively limited capital. Then 
 there was considerable anxiety w4th the tramps 
 and others who turned the crank of the circular 
 saw. There was also the need to see after the 
 bundles of wood, which were made up in the 
 little sheds, in which each man sat at work by 
 himself. Sometimes these bundles were too large, 
 or too small, or too loosely tied ; or the wood 
 looked common and dirty, preventing our sales. 
 In addition to all of which, the salesmen did not 
 always do their work as well as they might. But 
 all these things drove me very near God. It 
 really seemed as though I were in partnership 
 with him, and were counting on him at every 
 step. I owed much also to my manager, who 
 did his best to assist me, and has since taken on 
 the business. It was a pleasure for me to arrange 
 such terms as made it easy for him to do so. 
 
 But from time to time extraordinary difficulties 
 arose. Here is a sample. I had always taken a 
 leading part in the temperance and Blue Ribbon 
 
/ BECOME A FIRE-WOOD MERCHANT 1 05 
 
 movements ; and the committee, of which I was 
 president, was constantly engaged in a crusade 
 against public-houses in Leicester and the neigh- 
 borhood. On one occasion we promoted a depu- 
 tation to ask the magistrates to reduce the num- 
 ber of grocers' licenses. 
 
 It is not easy to gauge the amount of injury 
 done through the sale on the part of grocers of 
 wines and spirits. Many a woman first learns to 
 drink by the temptation thus put into her way. 
 And it is so easy for her to get drink wn'thout at- 
 tracting the notice of her neighbors by going 
 or sending to the public-house. Besides, in the 
 wxekly account the liquor suppHed to her can 
 go down among the groceries ; and many a work- 
 ing-man has bitterly rued the day when the 
 drink came into his home by way of the grocer's 
 shop. 
 
 To reduce the number of these licenses was 
 our aim; and a map was prepared, dotted with 
 round red spots, each of which indicated the pres- 
 ence of a liquor shop. On the morning when 
 the deputation met at the Temperance Hall with 
 the view of proceeding to the magistrates, it was 
 suddenly discovered that the prominent men who 
 were to have headed the deputation had not 
 come. A hurried consultation was held, and it 
 was unanimously agreed that the office should 
 be assigned to myself. I was not altogether un- 
 
I06 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 aware what it would involve, but I dared not 
 flinch. It has always been a habit with me not 
 to put on others work which I would not do my- 
 self, and so I undertook the duty. 
 
 The court was crowded with the liquor dealers 
 and their friends — with young lawyers who en- 
 joyed the opportunity of baiting the saints; with 
 policemen and officials. We made our statement, 
 enforced the undesirableness of multiplying the 
 objectionable licenses, and did our best to impress 
 the Bench, which gave us a friendly hearing. In- 
 deed, in their private capacity, all the magistrates 
 were friends of mine ; though on such an occasion 
 we preserved a decorous distance. So we with- 
 drew. 
 
 But then the storm broke. In the evening 
 notices w^ere sent out, and a meeting of the drink- 
 sellers was held to discuss the situation, and es- 
 pecially my action. It was then unanimously 
 agreed that as I had dared to interfere with their 
 trade, they would " boycott " my fire- wood ; and 
 as my principal business was done among small 
 grocers, this was a very serious matter. No gro- 
 cer who had a license was free to buy our wood. 
 Every epithet was heaped on me. Every bar- 
 room rung with execration. And I was dared 
 to go down certain streets of Leicester, under 
 pain of personal violence. I walked down those 
 streets the next day or two after in the most 
 
/ BECOME A FIRE-WOOD MERCHANT 107 
 
 leisurely way, knowing that those who brag most 
 are cowards at heart. 
 
 Still it was sufficiently alarming. My chief 
 means of carrying on the business lay in my 
 ready-money returns from the shops. It was 
 only thus that I could pay for my wood and 
 keep my business going. And now suddenly the 
 sales fell away to about one third of their former 
 amount ; the carts came back, day after day, al- 
 most as they started in the morning; and the 
 salesmen became very disheartened. Besides, how 
 could I go on with my manufacturing, when my piles 
 of unused bundles were accumulating so largely? 
 
 Friends heard of my perplexities and gener- 
 ously helped me. I never shall forget the kind- 
 ness of one or two ; and I laid the matter before 
 Him on whom I ever looked as the chief Partner 
 In the firm. And after two or three weeks the 
 tide began to turn. The sales went up. The 
 carts came back from their rounds empty, and 
 we were all more hopeful. On one of these 
 evenings, as a driver came in with his cart, I 
 asked him what had altered the attitude of our 
 customers, and he replied : '' JVe/l, sir, yon see, the 
 people don't like yon any better than they did; bnt 
 they say the religions fire-zvood is better weight 
 than the other fire -wood, and so they are coming 
 back to ns.'' It is a good thing to put your re- 
 ligion into fire- wood. It pays! 
 
I08 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 The routine of the day was as follows : The 
 men were supposed to be up at six. An hour's 
 work was done before breakfast. I managed to 
 arrive at 7 : 45 for prayers. This was always a 
 great occasion. Imagine a transformed stable, 
 with tables running from end to end, except 
 where broken by a great flat stove, in and on 
 which several breakfasts were being cooked, the 
 odor from them being extraordinarily fragrant. 
 It was sometimes as much as I could do to stand 
 my ground. Then the men came in, sometimes 
 as many as thirty or thirty-five. We sang one 
 of Sankey's hymns, more or less in tune, but al- 
 ways heartily. Next came the reading and ex- 
 position of some brief passage of Scripture, fol- 
 lowed by prayer. 
 
 When prayer was over, any complaints were 
 made or disputes adjudicated, the story of one of 
 which I will here relate. 
 
 We had been much troubled with men break- 
 ing out again in drink, though one of the condi- 
 tions of residence with us was that the pledge 
 should be strictly kept. Here was a great prob- 
 lem. I could not turn the men out of my place 
 without abandoning my efforts for their welfare ; 
 and if they left Providence House, there was 
 nowhere for them to turn to. I could not punish 
 them, of course ; and yet it was essential to do 
 something. So one morning I made the proposi- 
 
/ BECOME A FIRE-WOOD MERCHANT 109 
 
 tion that if a man broke out drinking he should 
 leave the place, unless the rest of us were willing 
 to raise toi shillings between us for the funds of 
 the Prisoners' Aid Society. Of this sum the men 
 were to contribute 2s. 6d., and I 7s. 6d. In this 
 way I hoped to bind them into a sort of Mutual 
 Protection Society. 
 
 Shortly after this four men broke out drinking 
 all together; and after prayers they were sent 
 outside while the rest of us consulted what to do. 
 It was very interesting to watch the experiment, 
 and to feel that for the first time some of the 
 men were genuinely interested in each other's 
 welfare, and stood in a strait between their own 
 interests and the salvation of their brothers. 
 
 ** Why should we fine ourselves for them?" 
 said one. 
 
 " Well," said I, " on the same principle as led 
 the Almighty to give Christ to die." 
 
 '* Let's pick out one of them," said another. 
 
 " No," said the rest ; '' all or none." 
 
 And at last, after a great deal of talk, they 
 agreed to raise half-a-crown for each of the men, 
 making ten shillings in all, and I found the re- 
 mainder. 
 
 It was very touching. One man gave up the 
 money he was saving for some boots; another 
 what he had put aside for his dinner; and so on. 
 Then the four men were admitted. We told them 
 
no THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 what we had done, and how we were willing to 
 suffer in order to save them. It touched a new 
 chord in their hearts, bound the whole of them 
 together with a new tie, and helped to build up 
 a strong breakwater of public sentiment against 
 the drink, behind which the weaker could take 
 shelter. Thus we tried to carry out the inspired 
 injunction, ** Bear ye one another's burdens, and 
 so fulfill the law of Christ." 
 
 Under the rough upper crust of men of this 
 class there are noble and generous qualities, 
 crushed by long years of lovelessness, passion, 
 drink, and self-will, and waiting for the call of 
 the Saviour. Beneath his touch, and the entrance 
 of his life, they awake ; and instead of being spas- 
 modic and fitful, become the permanent principles 
 and possessions of the soul. 
 
XIII. 
 bariotts illetl)obs 
 
 " In blessing we are blest, 
 In labor find our rest; 
 If we bend not to the world's work, heart 
 
 and hand and brain, 
 We have lived our life in vain." 
 
 C. Seymour. 
 
 AMONG other interesting results of my work 
 JTx. at the prison gate, there are two or three 
 which require notice, in order to give a complete 
 idea of the various agencies set on foot. 
 
 First of these was the Window- Cleaning Bri- 
 gade. It was said, a Httle unfairly, that a man 
 must get into prison before I would do anything 
 to help him. Indeed, rumor had it that some 
 men actually committed some trifling offense, that 
 through the prison cell they might come into my 
 hands. This seemed to put a premium on crime ; 
 and I felt that I must discover some way by which 
 respectable men who were out of employment 
 might be enabled to help themselves. 
 
112 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 After considerable cogitation, I bought a lad- 
 der or two, some pails, and leathers, and started 
 one or two men on the job of window-cleaning. 
 Cards on which my name w^as printed, which 
 guaranteed their respectability, were left from 
 door to door, to be followed up a day or two 
 after. My friends throughout the town were 
 very kind ; and I think that, in many cases, win- 
 dows were burnished to an extent that was a lit- 
 tle out of the ordinary. Thus encouraged, I felt 
 emboldened to try a larger venture, more espe- 
 cially as my ladders were too short to reach upper 
 windows ; and, notwithstanding my guarantees of 
 respectability, my friends did not see their way 
 to admit my proteges within their houses. Be- 
 sides which, inducements were held out to me 
 that I could do the large factories of the town at 
 so much a window, if only I had ladders long 
 enough to reach them. The result was that in a 
 short time, at the cost (I almost shudder to say it) 
 of some £20y I found myself possessed of two of 
 the longest ladders in the town of Leicester. I 
 think I can see them now, with my name printed 
 down one side, ** Rev. F. B. Meyer's Window- 
 Cleaning Brigade." They were evidently so 
 cumbersome, that when they were brought to 
 the cofTee-house one morning, I gave instructions 
 for a special cart to be constructed to carry them ; 
 and the whole needed at least four men to push 
 
y/iRIOUS METHODS 
 
 113 
 
 the cart to and fro, and to set the ladders up and 
 move them. 
 
 Many hairs were turned gray on account of the 
 initial anxieties in starting this new branch of my 
 work, arising largely from the fact that my men 
 did not seem to recognize the distinction between 
 the wages I gave them and the money that was 
 paid for their work, some of which was due to 
 me for my outlay. However, the result, as far as 
 employing men who were out of work was con- 
 cerned, amply justified my expenditure; and I 
 had the satisfaction of employing men until they 
 secured situations, which they had an opportu- 
 nity of doing by moving among the residents and 
 manufacturers of the town. As I was constantly 
 about the streets, I met different members of my 
 brigade, with their ladders and pails ; and I always 
 think kindly of my people at Melbourne Hall, 
 that they were not scandalized at the eminently 
 practical side of their pastor's character. 
 
 On the same line, and to give employment to 
 the same class, I started the Messenger Brigade, 
 something after the fashion of the Commissionaire 
 Corps. This was intended more especially to help 
 old men who were no longer fit for laborious 
 work. We began with four, in different parts of 
 the town. They stood at certain spots, waiting 
 to be sent on errands, to be called in to black 
 
114 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 boots, or do any odd jobs about the house. They 
 wore a specially-made hat with my name in the 
 front, and were paid so much per quarter of an 
 hour, or per quarter of a mile, keeping all they 
 earned. Had I remained in Leicester, I believe 
 this might have been made a great success. Only 
 one old man clings now to the spot where I lo- 
 cated him, by Victoria Road Church, and I be- 
 lieve he still has one of these hats. He always 
 comes to hear me preach on my occasional visits ; 
 and I am glad to think that I have done some- 
 thing to brighten his life. I have a sort of feel- 
 ing that even in heaven he will tell me with a 
 kind of simple pleasure that he was one of my 
 messengers. He has now a little hut, like a 
 sentry-box, that screens him from the weather; 
 and many people treat him kindly for my sake. 
 
 One more item, though I trust that my readers 
 will not accuse me of garrulity or egotism. My 
 one desire in giving these chapters from my life 
 is to show what an ordinary man, apparently 
 without special aptitude for this sort of work, 
 was nevertheless able to eflfect. When I first 
 took Providence House, it was my intention to 
 make it serve a double purpose — for discharged 
 prisoners on the one hand, and for homeless lads 
 who had been in prison, or were in danger of go- 
 ing there, on the other. In the top floor of the 
 manager's house were several beds, and these I 
 
VARIOUS METHODS 115 
 
 filled with street boys who were in moral danger. 
 Some of them I employed in the fire- wood fac- 
 tory, paying them wages of which they returned 
 me something for their keep; for others we ob- 
 tained situations among the manufacturers of the 
 town. 
 
 We had some strange and surprising experi- 
 ences among the lads ; for instance, one afternoon 
 the whole of them slipped out of the place, " to 
 walk to London " to improve their position, evi- 
 dently under the notion that its streets were 
 paved with gold! We, however, not knowing 
 where they had gone, were filled with dismay. 
 But it so happened that one of our wood-carts 
 coming in from the country happened to meet 
 them walking bravely along the London Road, 
 and brought us word ; so my manager started in 
 pursuit. We had this hold upon them, that the 
 clothes they wore were our property. It was 
 understood between them and us that they were 
 a loan, and that they were free to leave us at any 
 moment on returning to us our belongings. This 
 enabled us to arrest the runaways and to bring 
 them back. 
 
 I was very much encouraged with the work we 
 were able to do among these boys. No other 
 field of my work yielded such harvests. I could 
 see the improvement working in them from week 
 to week ; and in many cases we received excellent 
 
Il6 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 reports from their employers. To find further 
 work for them we started cane-chair making, and 
 produced chairs which are still to be seen in var- 
 ious parts of Leicester; but each chair could tell 
 a story. All I need say here is that, if any of 
 my friends should be thinking of teaching boys 
 to make cane chairs, they should write to me for 
 further particulars, as I would earnestly warn 
 them against the attempt. 
 
 By far the best plan is to procure situations for 
 the lads in the factories within easy reach of their 
 Home ; and this was the plan ultimately resorted 
 to by us. This branch of the work was removed 
 from Providence House, and a Boys' Home was 
 opened in a neighboring street I rented a suit- 
 able house, placed there my true and trusty 
 friends, Mr. Burnham and his wife, guaranteed 
 the rent, and started the little family. The lads 
 were expected to bring us the whole of their 
 wages. We deducted eight shillings for their 
 keep, gave them sixpence for pocket-money, and 
 put the remainder on one side for clothes or other 
 necessaries. This system, with the help of a few 
 outside subscriptions, secures the maintenance of 
 the two good souls that nobly fulfill the office of 
 parents to those who perhaps have never known 
 father or mother. 
 
 This Boys' Home still flourishes, and is the 
 means of starting many a young lad on the up- 
 
VARIOUS METHODS 1 17 
 
 ward path. After spending three or four years 
 in the Home, the lads are able to take lodg- 
 ings for themselves ; and it is a great pleasure, 
 from time to time, to hear tidings of their wel- 
 fare. 
 
 One is a young Christian soldier, who reports 
 himself when returning on furlough. Another 
 is a most devoted Christian artisan. Others from 
 time to time write to say that they are doing well, 
 either in England or abroad. I subjoin extracts 
 from two letters received comparatively lately. 
 One writes : 
 
 " I write to you these few lines, hoping that they will reach 
 you and find you quite well. I was glad to see you here in 
 Leicester, and to shake your hand. I did not know what to say 
 to you then ; but if the people who gathered around you were not 
 there, 1 should have liked to say a few more words with you. 
 When we come to look back on the past, when you did come 
 down to Providence House and talked to us all, there is one thing 
 I do remember of your kindness to me, and trying to lead me to 
 God ; that was when you took me by myself and prayed for me, 
 and forgave the wrong that I did. I am sure if I had not come 
 to your Home I should have gone down into deeper sin. But 
 God was with me, though I did not know it then. But I know 
 it now, and it is only by my prayer that I have had blessing from 
 him. I do thank God now in my heart for his kindness in pre- 
 serving me from evil, and in giving me good things. I must tell 
 you that I have been home and seen my friends. They were all 
 very pleased to see me indeed ; and I told them a good bit of my 
 past life, especially my mother.' 
 
 Another, a young man, now doing well in the 
 United States, writes : 
 
Il8 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 ** I do thank you, sir, for helping me to come to this country; 
 it has been my salvation ; the seed you sowed in my heart at 
 Leicester was not lost, but has sprung up, after lying dormant 
 so long." 
 
 Many who desire to help friendless lads might 
 work on these lines, which appear to me to do 
 the maximum amount of good for the minimum 
 expenditure of money and thought ; the only 
 necessity is to be prepared to supplement the in- 
 come of the Home with a few outside subscrip- 
 tions, in case slackness of work or other causes 
 produce a slight annual deficit. 
 
 I have not made very prominent the earnest 
 religious influence which we always sought to 
 bring to bear upon the various characters whom 
 these methods brought within our reach. Ours 
 was no mere humanitarianism. The efforts we 
 made for the material well-being of these men 
 were subordinate to the constant desire to pro- 
 mote their total abstinence, and, above all, their 
 devotion to Christ. Sometimes I had straight 
 talks with them, oftenest I think they felt that I 
 was expecting them to live pure, sober, God- 
 fearing lives ; and one by one several gave evi- 
 dence that they were passing into the Kingdom. 
 That is not first which is spiritual, but that which 
 is natural ; afterward that which is spiritual. 
 
XIV. 
 3:i)e Streets 
 
 " Let us watch awhile the sowers, let us mark their tiny grain, 
 Scattered oft in doubt and trembling, sown in weakness and in 
 
 pain ; 
 Then let Faith, with radiant finger, lift the veil from unseen 
 
 things, 
 Where the golden sheaves are bending, and the harvest an- 
 them rings." 
 
 F. R. Havergal. 
 
 THIS Prison Mission introduced me into a 
 great variety of Christian and philanthropic 
 work throughout the town of Leicester. Most 
 people knew of me, even if they were not per- 
 sonally acquainted with me ; and one was able to 
 do and say things which had not been received 
 in such good part unless my fellow-townsfolk had 
 learned to trust and respect my motives. 
 
 One of the most interesting branches of work 
 was the expeditions which a band of Christian 
 working-men and I used to make into the streets 
 of Leicester ow Saturdays, especially in the winter. 
 We met about 9 : 30 in the evening, at the close 
 119 
 
120 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 of the prayer-meeting ; and, after we had fortified 
 ourselves with supper, and divided into twos, tak- 
 ing several directions, we dived down amid the 
 great multitudes of people that filled the streets. 
 
 What a sight they used to be, those Leicester 
 streets on Saturday night! The glare of the gas 
 in the market-place reflected from the clouds ; the 
 murmur of voices; the clatter of boots over the 
 ill-paved causeways in the back parts of the town ; 
 the bags, and parcels, and satchels filled with pur- 
 chases for the week. The working-classes seemed 
 to reserve all their shopping for that single night, 
 and to turn out en masse to do it. The public- 
 houses were, of course, in full blast, the bars 
 crowded with people ; and scores of men would 
 be reeling home, some just able to walk, others 
 uproariously merry, others again inclined to fight. 
 There would be plenty of incident to arrest the 
 attention, plenty of cases needing a helping hand. 
 
 We were a kind of moral and spiritual ambu- 
 lance corps. Sometimes we stopped a drunken 
 fight ; or led home a bewildered inebriate, mak- 
 ing an appointment to call on him the following 
 morning, to take his pledge and bring him to the 
 house of God. At other times we might have to 
 argue with a man for an hour or two, as he kept 
 putting us off with false addresses, or evaded our 
 inquiries. Often we were able to arrest some one 
 whom we knew to be in temptation, and to say 
 
THE STREETS 121 
 
 in the words of Scripture, '* What doest thou 
 here?" 
 
 Here let me be garrulous, and tell one story 
 which is as fresh to me as on the day on which 
 it happened. One drizzling Saturday afternoon 
 I was in search of adventure in my favorite resort 
 when in certain moods — the streets. My prepa- 
 rations being finished for the coming day, I felt 
 free. As I was going down one long dreary 
 street, I suddenly came on a man propped up 
 against the wall, which he dared not leave for 
 fear of falling, for drink had affected his motor 
 nerves, though it had left his brain clear. He 
 was unable to walk steadily, but quite able to 
 understand what he was doing and what hap- 
 pened subsequently. A group of small children 
 were eying him with astonishment, and I think 
 he was addressing them more or less coherently. 
 Discovering his plight, I offered to take him home. 
 At first he refused, because I was too much of a 
 gentleman. But finally I overcame his objections, 
 and we started. He was a much bigger man 
 than myself, and heavier; and I found it very 
 difficult to keep him steady with one hand, and 
 to shelter us both under my umbrella with the 
 other. 
 
 Being anxious to take him to the address he 
 had given me with as little delay as possible, I 
 thoughtlessly took what I knew to be a shorter 
 
122 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 cut, forgetting for the moment that it ended in a 
 walk across some clay-pits, on the farther side of 
 which his home lay. It was a perilous adventure, 
 the remembrance of which even now makes me 
 shudder ; for no sooner had we got over the stile, 
 and were well started on the sticky soil, than he 
 collapsed helplessly on the ground, making it im- 
 possible for me to keep my feet, an experience 
 which was repeated more than once in that never- 
 to-be-forgotten tramp. In fact, no Turkish bath 
 that I have enjoyed since has had a greater effect 
 upon me than my efforts to keep my charge upon 
 his feet on that slippery clay. A man passed by 
 without offering to help, who reminded me in- 
 stantly of the Levite in the parable ; and yet how 
 could I blame him, who perhaps had no change 
 of clothes to substitute for those which would 
 certainly have become thickly coated if he had 
 borne me company ? 
 
 At last we reached the other side, with its terra 
 firvia, and a few steps brought us to his home. 
 We went up the side passage, and appeared in a 
 besmirched condition as to our clothes, before the 
 window of the back kitchen, where his wife and 
 children were having tea. I can now see the look 
 of wonder upon the woman's face. She could 
 not understand who this man was that had 
 brought her husband home ; and I think she 
 feared that I was a policeman in plain clothes. 
 
THE STREETS 1 23 
 
 Her fears, however, were soon dissipated, and we 
 sat down at the table. 
 
 " Missus, give the gentl'm'n some tea," he said ; 
 and she at once cHmbed a chair, and began to 
 search among her best china for a cup and saucer. 
 Now, I always dread best china, partly because I 
 am afraid of breaking it, and partly because of 
 the dust which generally gathers in it; and so I 
 begged the good woman not to mind, but to give 
 me a cup of tea in the first mug or cup that came 
 to hand. While she was preparing to do this, he 
 broke in : 
 
 *' Have ye got any of them cards with yer? " 
 
 ** What cards? " said I. 
 
 "Them teetotal cards," he replied. 
 
 ** Oh, yes," said I, " plenty;" for I always car- 
 ried a supply of them with me. 
 
 His wife then sought for the ink, and brought 
 at last from the front room a pot, in which were 
 the dried remains of what had been ink, like 
 the ashes of an extinct volcano. With these we 
 made shift, and with some difficulty got the card 
 signed. The wife and children had no need to 
 copy his example, for they were already on the 
 safe side. And I left the house with many assur- 
 ances that he would come and hear me preach — 
 which he did ; and that afternoon ended most 
 satisfactorily, in the winning of his soul for a new- 
 Master. 
 
124 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 On another occasion, late one Saturday night, 
 I picked up a man, incapable of taking care of 
 himself, and found that he belonged to the neigh- 
 boring little town of Loughborough. He con- 
 fessed to me that he was married, his wife as nice 
 a girl as you would wish to see ; that she did not 
 know where he was, but would be looking for 
 him. Then he relapsed into a state of incoher- 
 ency ; and there was nothing for it but to take him 
 to the station, pay his fare, give him in charge of 
 the guard, and put in his pocket a piece of paper, 
 with words like these written on it in a clear 
 hand: 
 
 " My friend, I found you in the streets of Leicester, unable to 
 care for yourself, because you were so drunk ; I paid your fare, 
 and sent you back to Loughborough. I urge you, in the strength 
 of Christ, to give up this accursed habit, which will ruin body 
 and soul." 
 
 But my working-men met with adventures 
 even more thrilling and interesting; and they 
 were happy hours in which we recounted our 
 experiences. What a romance there is in the 
 streets ! Comedy and tragedy within touch ; 
 lights and shadows chasing each other, as they 
 do across the hills. Who need live a lonely life 
 when within reach of such a wealth of human 
 need, and sorrow, and love, only waiting our 
 search ! 
 
 Closely connected with this were the open-air 
 
THE STREETS 1 25 
 
 services we held two or three times a week dur- 
 ing the summer. Ah, those meetings by the 
 weighing-machine in the Humberstone Gate, and 
 in the Infirmary Square ! My voice is not natu- 
 rally suited for this kind of work ; but I used to 
 do most in guiding the meeting, giving out the 
 hymns, introducing the speakers or solo singers, 
 and giving the last fifteen minutes' talk. 
 
 If a man wants to learn to speak, let him go 
 into the street, stand up on a chair, and begin. 
 It will not be long before he learns what sort of 
 talk will hold an audience. His congregation is 
 apt to disappear in a remarkably short time, so 
 soon as he becomes prosy. It is a great mistake 
 to think that any one or that any kind of talk 
 will do for the open air. We should put our 
 best men forward there, and they should give 
 their very best utterances. An open-air audi- 
 ence will listen to good, earnest, common sense, 
 and you may season it with that natural play of 
 humor and bonhomie which come and go when 
 the soul is speaking without reserve. 
 
 I always sought to have a little ring gathered 
 around me ; but before now I have started abso- 
 lutely alone. But the meetings which began with 
 most discouragement generally ended with most 
 success — as we discovered when, at the end of 
 the service, we marched to the mission hall and 
 counted up our gains. 
 
126 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 There is so much in the open air to suggest 
 topics for speech. The telegraph wires, speaking 
 of prayer, and the messages which are ever flash- 
 ing into our souls ; the precautions taken against 
 the lightning stroke and the outbreak of fire ; the 
 earthenware pipes to be laid underground, rep- 
 resenting the life hidden with Christ in God, 
 through which living water flows; the crescent 
 moon, recalling the incompleteness which is the lot 
 of us all ; the full moon, emblematic of the Hght 
 which, when in perfect fellowship with Jesus, we 
 catch and reflect ; the noise of the carts drowning 
 the speaker's utterances as the rush of worldliness 
 and business does '* the still small voice." Texts 
 peep out on all sides, and illustrations coyly offer 
 themselves ready made. 
 
 Christian man, pining for a sphere of useful- 
 ness! young aspirant for a pulpit! minister, with- 
 out a charge! take my advice. Do not pine in 
 inaction on the shore ; launch out into the deep 
 of the streets, and let down your nets for a 
 draught. 
 
XV. 
 
 " I believe 
 In one Priest, and one Temple, with its floors 
 Of shining jasper gloom'd at morn and eve 
 
 By countless knees of earnest auditors ; 
 And crystal walls too lucid to perceive — 
 
 That none may take the measure of the place 
 And say, * So far the porphyry, then, the flint : 
 
 To this mark Mercy goes, and there ends Grace.' " 
 
 E. B. Browning. 
 
 BY this time I had become surrounded by a 
 number of working-men who had been saved 
 from the drink, and were wiUing to help me save 
 others. They used to gather at the prison gate 
 to render voluntary help whenever work per- 
 mitted ; so that sometimes I had a group of five 
 or six men clustered by the big gate, waiting for 
 my appearance with my morning's output of 
 prisoners. I always called them by their Chris- 
 tian names — Joe, Harry, A If, and so forth, to each 
 of whom a prisoner was consigned for conveyance 
 127 
 
128 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 to the coffee-house. There they would attend to 
 their wants, talk to them, and help me in many 
 ways. 
 
 Finally, some of them desired to start work on 
 their own account, and obtained permission to 
 visit the tramp wards of the workhouse each 
 Sunday afternoon. Those services have been 
 continued ever since, and have led — I am glad 
 to hear — to the material as well as the spiritual 
 welfare of the tramps, in whose surroundings a 
 great change for the better has been made by the 
 authorities. 
 
 In addition to this, my friends gained entrance 
 to a common lodging-house, which was clean and 
 well-conducted, and to which I was in the habit 
 of sending a good many customers. Services 
 were held there every Sunday evening, and were 
 enthusiastically welcomed ; and I have every rea- 
 son to believe that the lodging-house keeper had 
 not only more respectable " dossers," but more 
 of them, owing to the fact of the services being 
 conducted there. He finally offered me the use 
 of an old loft in his back yard, in which it was 
 difficult to stand upright except in the center. It 
 was reached by a crazy ladder ; and when I saw it 
 first it was in an indescribable condition of rotten 
 timbers, dust, and neglect. Indeed, it seemed 
 more fit to be tenanted by rats and mice, or by 
 stray birds entering through the broken panes of 
 
"THE CATHEDRAL" 
 
 129 
 
 glass in the windows, than to be of any use in 
 the direction to which our thoughts immediately 
 tended when we heard that it might be ours. 
 
 The working-men and I, however, resolved 
 that we would do our very best to transform this 
 dilapidated room into a meeting-place for the 
 lodgers and neighbors. So we set to work, they 
 giving time and labor, and I providing the mate- 
 rials necessary. It was the subject of immense 
 interest for some weeks ; and at last, one Sunday 
 afternoon, as was announced at Melbourne Hall 
 and by bills, I went down solemnly to dedicate it 
 for the purposes of divine worship. There was 
 an unusual stir in the street; neighbors were 
 standing about in little groups, and as many of 
 the lodgers and of my own people as could were 
 crowding the little room to suffocation. But it 
 was a very pretty sight that greeted me ; the 
 floor had been repaired, the walls had been color- 
 washed and adorned with texts. Low seats had 
 been placed across the room, a table put for me 
 at the end, and the whole appearance was so in- 
 viting as I looked upon the sixty or seventy that 
 had crowded in, that I dubbed the place by the 
 name of "The Cathedral," a name which I be- 
 lieve it bears still. How they sang! How I 
 preached! I have addressed many audiences, 
 but I may fairly exclaim concerning that: How 
 they listened ! The very babies seemed to feel 
 
130 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 the spell of their unwonted surroundings, and 
 slept. 
 
 The bishop of this cathedral was, of course, 
 myself; but the dean was a dear friend of mine, 
 by trade a painter, tall, and straight, and true, 
 whose work has resulted in winning many jewels 
 for Christ's crown from those scenes of squalor 
 and drunkenness. The result of the services held 
 there, among the peddlers and flower-sellers, and 
 other people that frequented the house, soon be- 
 came apparent ; and of this an amusing illustra- 
 tion was given shortly before I left Leicester. 
 
 It was my habit then, as now, to spend the 
 bank holidays and Saturday afternoons with my 
 people, especially with the young men — a practice 
 which I would earnestly recommend to Christian 
 ministers. The first conception of this was sug- 
 gested by the story told in Kingsley's life of his 
 work at Chester; of which it is said that, on the 
 Saturday afternoons, the canon and his daughters 
 would conduct from sixty to a hundred persons 
 for botanical and geological investigation in the 
 neighborhood. ''Those were bright afternoons," 
 the biographer says, " all classes mingling to- 
 gether ; people who had lived next door to each 
 other in Chester for years, perhaps, without ex- 
 changing a word, now meeting upon equal and 
 friendly terms in pursuit of one ennobling object, 
 and traveling in second-class carriages together, 
 
"THE CATHEDRAL" I31 
 
 without distinction of rank or position, to return 
 at the end of the long summer evening, to their 
 old city, refreshed and inspirited, with nosegays 
 of wild flowers, geological specimens, and happy 
 thoughts of God's earth, and of their fellow- 
 creatures." 
 
 I could not lay claim to more than a smattering 
 of geological knowledge, while I am deplorably 
 ignorant of botany ; but I tried to compensate for 
 my deficiency in these respects by acquainting 
 myself with the archaeology of Leicester, which 
 contains as many ancient remains as any town of 
 its size. Ah! those days, when we visited St. 
 Mary's Church, where the crusaders would watch 
 the night before they started for the Holy Land ; 
 the site of the ancient Roman amphitheater, with 
 the stump of the pillar that marked the stadium ; 
 the tessellated pavement, lying six feet below the 
 level of the street, on which couriers, fresh from 
 Rome, may have brought the tidings of the perse- 
 cution of the followers of Christ ; the Town Hall, 
 where Shakespeare played, and Elizabeth held 
 court ; the church where George Fox "brawled" ; 
 the piece of wall w^here Rupert made one of his 
 hottest charges, and Bunyan is said narrowly to 
 have escaped death ; these and such like would 
 gather from eighty to a hundred young men who 
 learned to read history from the books of old 
 stones and moldering monuments. 
 
132 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 In these explorations I received much help 
 from various friends. One very happy afternoon, 
 for instance, was spent at St. Mary's Church, 
 already alluded to, under the personal direction 
 of my friend, the late Canon Broughton. It is 
 one of the finest churches in Leicester, and pre- 
 sents, in its various restorations, specimens of all 
 the principal styles of architecture. The fine old 
 gateway and the adjacent Newarke (New Work) 
 are full of historic interest ; and hard by is the 
 bridge spanning the Soar, by which King Richard 
 passed to Bosworth Field. 
 
 For more mixed audiences in the summer, we 
 would arrange walks to the neighboring villages, 
 where the kind people connected with humble 
 chapels would provide us with tea, in return for 
 which we held brief services. And it was at one 
 of these that the trivial incident took place which 
 I was about to narrate when I was led off on this 
 long digression — much as when a whiff of air, 
 bearing some country scent, carries the mind back 
 to scenes now engulfed by the devouring waves 
 of time. 
 
 We had walked to Anstey in the early after- 
 noon, a large party, on a bank holiday. We were 
 rather tired in the sultry weather, and eager for 
 tea. Some were within the Httle chapel, hastening 
 the preparations, while the majority were sitting 
 with me on the steps, or standing about singing 
 
"THE CATHEDRAL" 133 
 
 hymns. Suddenly a conveyance drew up whose 
 driver, and pair of horses, and general appear- 
 ance, were all that could be desired. The vehicle 
 had evidently been specially hired for the occa- 
 sion ; and I expected nothing less than that sev- 
 eral of the Melbourne Hall people, who were 
 possessed of more money than walking powers, 
 had hired it to bring them, when, on closer in- 
 spection, I discovered that they were almost all 
 strangers to me. But they were recognized in- 
 stantly by some in the group as being the congre- 
 gation from *' the Cathedral." Costermongers, 
 flower-women, peddlers, filigree-ornament mak- 
 ers, street fruit-sellers, fish-hawkers — some of 
 whom had been in jail, but all were now total 
 abstainers, if not Christians — had found their new 
 life so profitable that they were not only able to 
 dress respectably, but to treat themselves for a 
 day In the country, hiring the conveyance for 
 their greater comfort. 
 
 It may seem but a Httle thing ; but their evi- 
 dent delight, and the shouts with which they 
 were welcomed, and the way in which they 
 were received into our circle, were to me a 
 very gratifying indication of the value of per- 
 sistent and devoted Christian endeavor. They 
 much wanted me to ride home with them, but 
 the larger demands of the walking party claimed 
 me. 
 
134 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 Before I left Leicester I had a scheme which 
 I propounded to some of the principal men, of 
 building common lodging-houses under the direc- 
 tion of the Council ; sure I am that the majority of 
 those who frequent such places would be thank- 
 ful for more decent and wholesome surroundings. 
 But this scheme fell through on my removal from 
 Leicester ; and I am glad to know how much good 
 has been done in this direction by the London 
 County Council. I have, therefore, contented 
 myself with superintending two respectable com- 
 mon lodging-houses since I came to London, the 
 story of which would be too long to tell. On the 
 one hand, the enterprise has developed some of 
 the noblest qualities of manhood in my fellow- 
 workers, three or four of whom have elected to 
 live in the common lodging-house, that they 
 might better help the inmates. On the other 
 hand, not a few have passed from the lowest 
 degradation into a new Hfe ; and some, by the 
 help of our Industrial Farm, in which I am in- 
 terested, and with the assistance of the Self-help 
 Emigration Society, have entered upon promising 
 careers in the far West. 
 
XVI. 
 ®n tlje Hace- Course 
 
 " Greatly begin ! though thou have time 
 But for a hne, be that subHme — 
 Not Failure, but low aim, is crime! . . . 
 We are not poorer that we wept and yearned ; 
 Though earth swing wide from God's intent, 
 
 And though no man nor nation 
 Will work with full consent 
 
 In heavenly gravitation — 
 Yet by one Sun is every orbit bent!" 
 
 Lowell. 
 
 BEFORE finally leaving the record of my work 
 at the prison gate, Leicester, I will relate how 
 on one occasion it stood me in good stead, and 
 was the means of saving, if not my life, at least 
 my coat from being torn to shreds by an excited 
 crowd. 
 
 It was a lovely day in July, and our Sunday- 
 school was, as usual, having its treat on the same 
 day on which the Leicester Races were being 
 held, as a means of decoying the children from 
 the perils of the race-course. It should be noted 
 here as a piece of ancient history that when I 
 135 
 
136 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 first knew Leicester, and for some years after, the 
 races were held within the town, at the top of 
 the London Road ; and, being open to all comers 
 without charge, were fraught with unutterable 
 evil to the morals of the town. 
 
 It would be impossible to count all the young 
 lives which were ruined on that breezy meadow ; 
 or how many Sunday-school scholars attracted 
 first by curiosity were caught by a whirlpool the 
 eddy of which finally sent them to perdition. 
 Thank God, the episode which I am about to re- 
 count marked the conclusion of the time-honored 
 custom of holding the races there ; ever since, 
 they have been celebrated beyond the boundaries 
 of the town in an inclosure, for admittance to 
 which each person is charged gate money. 
 
 For some previous days the town had been 
 placarded by notices inviting the attendance of 
 the townsfolk at a public meeting to be held on 
 the course, just opposite the grand stand, at the 
 conclusion of the last race, to determine whether 
 the races should be in future held there or re- 
 moved to Oadby. As one of the public, I resolved 
 to accept the invitation, but without informing 
 my most intimate friends of my resolve. 
 
 With as much equanimity as I could command, 
 I took part in our school treat, played games with 
 the children, as was my wont on such occasions^ 
 and in the scrimmage lost a very valuable keep- 
 
ON THE RACE-COURSE 137 
 
 sake ; which I remember made a deep impression 
 on my mind, in the midst of my not unnatural 
 anxiety as to the issue of my adventure. 
 
 Steahng quietly away from the field about four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, I made my way to the 
 race-course, determined to protest against the 
 continuance of the races in such near proximity, 
 and under such free conditions. 
 
 I reached the spot as the bell was ringing for 
 the last race, and waited quietly in the outskirts 
 of the crowd as the horses swept by. For the 
 first time in my life, I found myself surrounded 
 by the extraordinary medley of people, and scenes, 
 and spectacles, that converge to a race-course — 
 like refuse to the bottom of the vat. The gypsies 
 with the cocoa-nuts and Aunt Sallies ; the coarse, 
 hoarse-shouting professionals offering the odds ; 
 the mixture of vehicles, from that in which the 
 fashionably- dressed woman was drinking cham- 
 pagne, to the costermonger's cart; the evident 
 habitue, and the innocent-faced novice ; the un- 
 ceasing roar of human voices ; the strained excite- 
 ment until the winner was declared — all these 
 made an impression on my mind which it is suffi- 
 cient to have received once, and which one can 
 never forget. 
 
 When the race was over, I pushed my way into 
 the inclosure, not without having been recognized 
 by several, who seemed utterly at a loss to un- 
 
138 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 derstand my business there, and so to the en- 
 trance to the stand. CHmbing the staircase, I 
 found myself at the end of a long corridor that 
 ran from end to end of the building ; on the left 
 were a number of doors entering into spacious 
 rooms, which in turn opened on the galleries and 
 verandas, from which views were to be obtained 
 of the course. These were thronged with showily- 
 dressed people — women in the gayest of costumes, 
 the men in light dust-coats. There was a good 
 deal of eating and drinking going forward, and 
 loud talking, and general excitement. 
 
 I felt very sensible that I could do very little 
 by myself, in face of the strong current which I 
 knew was running against me. And yet I was 
 conscious that God was asking of me a protest, 
 which in the fewest words I was determined to 
 try and give. 
 
 By this time the broad course in front of the 
 stand was crowded with thousands of people, and 
 I pushed my way forward to the front, and gave 
 in my card to the gentleman w^ho seemed to be 
 in charge. A number crowded around me — 
 young swells in sporting-coats asking who I was, 
 and why I had come, and what I wanted. I told 
 them, and aroused such a storm of indignation as 
 threatened to sweep me before it. They shouted, 
 gesticulated, swore at me ; some said, " Let him 
 speak," others threatened to throw me over; but 
 
ON THE RACE-COURSE 139 
 
 somehow I was pushed to the front, and there, 
 looking down on the immense crowd, was speed- 
 ily recognized, and my appearance was the signal 
 for so great an uproar that it would have been 
 impossible, even if my voice had been four times 
 as strong as it is, to obtain an audience. 
 
 On finding this, and being uncomfortably aware 
 that I had no base of operations, and that the 
 gentlemen behind me were saying some very un- 
 complimentary things, and planning worse, I 
 thought that discretion was the best part of 
 valor, and prepared to beat a retreat; but on 
 turning to do so was confronted with such a vis- 
 ion of human passion as would have filled me 
 with terror had I not been so confident in the sin- 
 cerity of my motive, and in the presence of God. 
 
 And I never can tell what would have happened, 
 if at this moment a well-known shopkeeper, much 
 given to drink, but who was a kind-hearted man 
 in his sober moments, and who was a companion 
 of many whom I had helped at the prison gate, 
 had not come forward, and placed himself between 
 the vehement crowd and myself, saying : " Gentle- 
 men, you shall not touch him — he is kind to those 
 who have got into trouble in the jail ; let him 
 go!" 
 
 He then constituted himself my protector, and 
 led me down that corridor, which I remember 
 seemed interminable, and which was now lined 
 
I40 THE BELLS OF IS 
 
 on either side by a crowd who, if they dared, 
 would no doubt have torn my clothes to shreds, 
 as by their words they tried to do my character. 
 
 But I got safely out, and made my way to the 
 house of a friend, w^ho was rather scared by my 
 white looks ; for indeed I felt as if I had expended 
 the whole of my nervous energy. 
 
 After a cup of tea, I set to work and wrote the 
 protest that I had intended to deliver ; and it was 
 published in the Leicester Daily Post the follow- 
 ing morning, with an account of the occurrence, 
 which the reporter described as '* a very extraor- 
 dinary proceeding on the part of the reverend 
 gentleman." 
 
 Of course, I do not pretend for a moment to 
 say that that protest led to the discontinuance of 
 the meetings on that site ; but it attracted atten- 
 tion to the evils of the system, and it certainly 
 was a very remarkable thing — which I can only 
 attribute to the direct agency of God — that, con- 
 trary to every appearance, the races were discon- 
 tinued. And the beautiful spot is now turned 
 into a public park, where boys play cricket and 
 children roam at large. It is one of the lungs of 
 that great town in which I spent some of the 
 happiest years of my life. 
 
 Wherever races are held, they are an unmit- 
 igated nuisance and source of temptation. For 
 a month after this annual carnival we had to deal 
 
ON THE RACE-COURSE 
 
 141 
 
 with its wreckage, in the miserable men and 
 women that issued from the jail, and were glad 
 enough of our help. Boys who had plundered 
 the till for money to make their bets or pay their 
 losses ; disreputable women locked up for being 
 drunk and disorderly ; a 7'ara avis of a book- 
 maker ; and many of the same class. 
 
 It is impossible to disassociate the turf from 
 betting; and the words of Kingsley are not a 
 whit too strong, when he says : ** Of all habits, 
 gambling is the most intrinsically savage ; morally 
 it is unchivalrous and unchristian ; the devil is the 
 only father of it." Let the Church of Christ lead 
 the crusade against this gigantic evil — by dis- 
 couraging all appeals to chance ; by ousting every 
 form of gambling from bazaars ; and by refusing 
 to court the patronage of any, however highly- 
 born and illustrious, who use their influence to 
 foster a system which, in the words of the late 
 Lord Beaconsfield, is " a vast engine of national 
 demoralization." 
 
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