Bath (1861)



In answer to prayer, God manifests his awakening and soul-saving power here. Many both verbally and by letter express their joy in God their Saviour. In no former three months of our experience have we beheld no many cases of poignant distress and exceeding joy as we have since the end of February in this city and its environs. A solemn sense of the Divine presence pervades the meetings, so much so, as to awe some who enter them in a frivolous or scoffing spirit. When the time for closing arrives, many leave very reluctantly even after staying in a close atmosphere for nearly three hours. Many of the hymns sung have been much blessed.

As we wait upon God for guidance, He has led us to speak on such subjects as went home to the hearers. Often without pre-arrangement, if one has proclaimed the terrors of the law, the other has followed with the attractions of the gospel, or vice versa. On one occasion, one spoke on Job xiv. 10, and the other on Luke vii. 13; and the power from on high was felt. One who sobbed loudly for a long time became helpless and unconscious. As she recovered she spoke very sweetly of the preciousness of Jesus to her, and the vanity of the world. Her face has beamed ever since, and she seems "quite on the verge of heaven." Many besides her wept much that evening. These meetings bring Christians into closer fellowship with each other, and they are working with a new zest for God. Some of them are spending hours in praying blessings down on Bath. One who was led to doubt whether it was right to countenance our meetings, opened the Bible after prayer, and the passage he first caught sight of was Acts x. 20. We are encouraged when we remember that lovers of Jesus in London at Stafford Rooms, Welbeck-street, and other places are pleading with God for us and his work here.

Most of the new converts are holding fast their profession. One morning, after attending a meeting, a little girl was over­heard by her mother praying aloud. She was impressed, and, with her husband, has come to Jesus. They closed their shop on the Lord's-day at once. One who in her deep distress struck her head repeatedly on the bench at which she knelt, writes to say how happy she is in her Saviour now. One who for some weeks has lived to God states that He revealed his pardon­ing love to her in a dream. We hear that another has been in such joy that some advanced Christians wept for joy over her. Some lately converted have been obliged to remove to a distance, and have wept much at leaving those with whom they have got so much good. One of these has returned from a northern town, unwilling to stay in a region so uncongenial to vital godliness as a public-house, though relatives held out induce­ments to do so. Another who has gone about thirty miles away brought seven or eight of her friends a distance of seven miles on the 26th ult. to a service we were holding at Potterne. The desire of those who have lately given their hearts to God has in some instances been so strong for the salvation of their kindred that they have wept bitterly and implored prayer on their behalf. Requests of this sort are constantly read in the large meetings. One person stood on a chapel threshold crying much because she could not prevail upon a thoughtless companion to come in. One man who came to the service swearing was afterwards seen the same night along a road in the suburbs .pith lain hat off, and was heard to offer the publican's prayer. A lad has been much weakened in body for weeks past through distress of soul. Some of the cases of conviction are very protracted. In obedience to the Redeemer's injunction, "Feed any lambs," a Bible-class has been formed by a Christian lady for young women recently converted. One has also been es­tablished for young men. Brethren, pray much for larger blessings to descend on Bath. , and in Christ Jesus,

From the 'Revival Newspaper', Volume IV, page 190-1.

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