A Personal Testimony 121 Indeed, I could never give way to temptation without sore prickings of conscience; and especially after my confirmation (for which I was prepared by Dr. Boyd, afterwards Dean of Exeter) I went through pains and sorrows for a time whenever I had sinned against the light. But neither warnings nor pleadings had any lasting ef- fects, till at length in the autumn of 1856, while I was re- siding with Mr. Jenkins, Vicar of Hazlewood, Derbyshire, as a private pupil before going to Cambridge, I was invited to stay for a night at Osmaston Manor, the splendid home of the late Mr. Frank Wright. In the evening his son (to be later the Rev. Henry Wright, Hon. Secretary of the Church Missionary Society)—at that time just entering man- hood like myself—asked me to go with him on the roof to see the moonlight effects. His invitation was with a purpose—for he was even then “a master” in soul winning; and though I cannot now re- member any particular arguments that he used, I know that he sent me to my room deeply moved with the sense of my own folly and sin in giving my life to the world instead of to God. Next morning he gave me a Bible (for I had not, I believe, taken one to my tutor’s), after writing in it the words of St. Paul to Titus, “Holding fast the faithful word.” That Bible I have and treasure still after forty-seven years of time. From Osmaston Manor I drove to the town of Derby, and by the time I arrived there I had begun to think myself a fool for listening so readily to one who had indeed con- victed me of sin, but had not succeeded in persuading me to accept Christ Jesus as my Lord. Consequently I began (as so many others have done in like circumstances) to wish that I could get rid of the painful impressions produced; and hav- ing observed on the town walls that the races were going on at Derby that day, and having a few hours to spare before I was due at my tutor’s, I thought I would see if by my first
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