A Christian gentleman here has for some time been stirred up to work in the Lord's vineyard. Our readers will remember the conversion of William Carter's host, at Cardiff (Revival No. 95). The way of the Lord in that gentleman's soul had been prepared by a visit from this brother from Hertford, who had visited him at Cardiff a week previously to Mr Carter's going there, and then returned to Hertford to pray for him, perhaps hardly expecting so speedy an answer, These preliminary remarks will enable our readers to understand the commencement of the following letter, written by Mr Carter to his friend at Cardiff, after a recent visit to Hertford, the results of which he describes :
My dear Brother,—Knowing the link there is between Cardiff and Hertford, your own house especially, and of dear Mr H , you may judge how rejoiced I was to find myself last Thursday, in company with that dear brother. Surely the Scripture was then verified, "One soweth, and another reapeth, but both rejoice together." He had been with you a week before God directed my way to your house, and had been sowing the seed, and then went home to Hertford to pray for you. It was real joy to my heart to sup with him, but that was not the only joy I had in Hertford. I preached the word in the Corn Exchange the same night to many hundreds of people. The Lord gave point and power to his own word, and scores were pricked in the heart, and many wept bitterly. Two dear men came up to me at the close of the meeting, with joy radiant in their countenances, and testified that God, for Christ's sake, had pardoned all their sins. Many others afterwards gave blessed testimony to God's grace. Broken hearts were healed. One old man I must mention, for I had such joy with him. Unobserved by any he dropped on my neck and sobbed bitterly. He was brought to realize sweet peace and rest of soul in Jesus. I turned to a dear woman who sat with a placid smile on her countenance, and she gave me a clear confession of faith, and she had got the joy of God's salvation. I then went and spoke to a number of youths from a private boarding-school, I should think some thirty or forty. It was manifest that God's word had laid hold of them all, without exception. The hour was late, and the principal took them off; but, to my great joy, in about twenty minutes he marshalled them all back again, and came up to me and told me that the boys were in such distress that he could not get them through the streets, and requested me to speak to them. There being so many I thought it best at first to speak to them altogether, which I did, and then went and spoke to each one individually. Some went away, I think, trusting in Christ. The principal invited me to visit the school in the morning. I did so, and after I had addressed them again, I spoke privately to them all. And I really believe that God has begun a good work in all their hearts. Nearly all of them witnessed a good confession, and the major part of them had really got joy and peace in believing.
A dear minister lent me his chapel in the morning for an anxious meeting, to which some came: among them were three old women, who got into real liberty; and a poor backslider who was deeply concerned but left without peace. Many other cases I might name, but these must suffice.
Please give my kind love to all the dear converts in Cardiff, and tell them how I long after them all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. WILLIAM CARTER
From the 'Revival Newspaper', Volume IV, page 197.
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