Rishton (1878)



This district has been notorious lately for the riots among the cotton workers. A letter from the Rev. T. G. Horwood
gives details which cannot fail to interest our readers:-

"Overpowering masses poured into the school room to hear William Taylor. After hearing him the first time I was prepared to conclude that his visit to Rishton would be a success, but not prepared to the extent the result and after-fruit justify. I knew not that the strangers who assembled even dwelt in the village and friends who have lived in the parish nearly all their lives were equally surprised. It was a clearing out of back streets of souls who never attended a place of worship. Not merely the fact that a navvy was going to preach to them of God's redemption to ruined sinners was the attraction, for they continued coming long after curiosity had been satisfied. But power accompanied the word and there was a real stirring among the dry bones. On all sides these stricken ones are to be seen, and it is strange that men whose shyness once made them shrink from the presence of a clergyman are forward in praising God for the plainness and faithfulness with which a fellow workman placed the truth before them. I cannot thank you enough for the good done in this village-town through the instrumentality of the Evangelisation Society.

"The Christian," June 13th, 1878.


Related Wells