765
THE KING’S BUSINESS
had calendars filled with charges for different nefarious practices, pocket picking, and larcenies of various sorts. Now, I have none of these, I am happy to say. How is such a gratify ing state of things to be accounted for? It must be from the improved : state of the morality of the people. I believe I am fully warranted now to say that to nothing else than the moral and religious movement which com menced early last summer can the change be attributed. I can trace the state of your calendar to nothing else.. It is a matter of great grati fication when we see the people of this county improving, and I trust that no temptations of any sort will arise by which they can be induced to forsake the paths of rectitude. Now, gentlemen, I would be inex cusable were I to occupy your time merely for the sake of addressing you, and as there is nothing to ad dress you on, I need not detain you.’ ” MANY VISITORS Much has been written and published re specting the revival in Coleraine. The place itself was so accessible, and the work so striking, that hundreds of strangers in the course of last summer visited it, and car ried back with them the good tidings. Through the medium also of the Coleraine Chronicle much valuable information was circulated, especially since the memorable day in its history when its publication was delayed through the agency of the quicken ing Spirit touching the hearts of several of the compositors, and so for the time in capacitating them for their ordinary avoca tions. There is one incident, in the form of a personal narrative by an individual from Coleraine at a meeting in Glasgow, which is so extraordinary that it cannot be omitted here. I have made inquiry into the accu racy of the statements, and find them per fectly correct. The name of the narrator is Mr.' Haltridge: “It was in the year,” he said, “when God
pecially from Scotland, have visited Cole raine during the summer and autumn, and, so far as is known to the writer, have gone away impressed with gratitude to God for what they saw and heard. Mercifully pre served from some painful and hurtful acci dents which accompanied the work of re vival in some other localities, we have gone on to this day reaping its blessed fruits. The drunkard, the poor outcast woman, the careless, the godless, the dupe of error, the young, the old—all are with us to this day, to witness, by altered habits and new lives, that a holy power has been among us. To hear the drunkard and blasphemer pray, whilst by his side, to right and left, kneel fallen women bathed in tears, and the man who lived without God in the world adding his deep Amen, are sounds and sights which we have been privileged to hear and see. Full sanctuaries, full Sabbath-schools, full prayer-meetings, brotherly love, increased liberality, and additions by hundreds to the communion of the churches—these are the fruits that remain to witness to the char acter of the work which will make the sum mer and autumn of 1859 to be long remem bered in Coleraine. As I wrote the last sentence, our local newspaper was put into my hands, and I close by extracting from it the following statement from the bench of our local County Court, by a judge who would adorn any bench: “The Barrister, addressing the Grand Jury, said: ‘When I look into the calendar for the last three months, and in memory look back on calendars that came before me, I am greatly struck with its appearance on this occasion. During the entire three months which have passed since I was here before, I find that but jone new case has to come before you, and one which is in some respects very unimportant.’ After directing the jury as to this case, his worship contin ued : ‘Now, gentlemen, as I said be fore, I am greatly struck at the ap pearance of this calendar, so small is the number of cases, when I formerly
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