to the country I was ill again. Altogether, it was a dull and
distressing time; but God was preparing me for a special work.



CHAPTER 31

Hayle, 1857-58.

While meditating upon my present position, and wondering what I was to
do next, I received an invitation to take charge of a district in
another part of the county, near the sea, which suited my health. Here
there was a large population, which gave scope for energetic action;
and, moreover, the people were careless and Godless, and, as such, were
not preoccupied with other systems. So I thought it was the very place
in which I could begin to preach, and go on to prove the power of the
Gospel.

With the invitation, I received an exaggerated account of the wickedness
of the people, and was told that the thinking part of them leant towards
infidelity, and that some of them were actually banded together in an
infidel club. All this, however, did not deter me from going, but rather
stirred me up so much the more to try my lance against this gigantic
foe. I had learned before now to regard all difficulties in my work as
the Lord's, and not mine; and that, though they might be greater than I
could surmount, they were not too great for Him.

There were two large iron factories here, besides shipping. Many of the
people employed were drawn from other parts of England, and were what
the Cornish call "foreigners." They had no love for chapel services, or