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 THE 
 
 OR -^ 
 
 I Memoir of BillvBrax 
 
tihrary of Che trheolojicd ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Delavan L. Pierson 
 BV 3785 .B8 B68 1887 
 Bourne, F. W. 1830-1905 
 The king's son 
 

 ej^. 
 
 ^^^//Lj^^cx-^J^c^^C,^^^^ 
 
 / y €^ CoX/^^^dJ (^^^-^^J^^ 
 
 C 
 
THE KING'S SON; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A MEMOIR OF BILLY BRAY. 
 
THE 
 
 MAR 5 Wsi . 
 
 HomKi. "^ 
 
 .>v 
 
 K I N G'S SON; 
 
 OR, 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ JHmoir of 33tlls ISrag. 
 
 COMPILED CHIEFLY FROM HIS OWN MEMORANDA. 
 
 R W. BOURNE. 
 
 3:i0ent?4iftf) fEUition. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 BIBLE CHRISTIAN BOOK-ROOM, 
 
 26, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.; 
 
 HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO., 32, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1887. 
 
BATMAN BROTHERS AND lALlX, 
 
 PRINTERS, 
 
 BATTON HOUSE, 113, FARRINODON KOAD, 
 
 LONDON, R.C. 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 'T^HE rapid sale of two editions of this Memoir is 
 sufficient evidence of the truth of the remark, 
 that no person in Cornwall, in the humbler ranks of 
 hfe at least, was better known or more respected than 
 William, commonly called " Billy " Bray. His witty 
 and eccentric sayings caused him to be thus widely 
 known, and his deep and fervent piety to be as gene- 
 rally respected. 
 
 It is Billy Bray himself who mostly speaks in the 
 following pages, and while his gems of thought and 
 experience might have been made — by cutting and 
 polishing and more skilful setting — to flash with an 
 intenser light and a purer lustre, I wish to express 
 '^ gratitude for the numerous testimonies I have re- 
 ceived as to the acceptability and usefulness of this 
 little work. 
 
 To several ministers whose names occur in the 
 
VI PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Memoirs, to the Rev. W. Haslam, and to Mr John 
 
 Ashworth of Rochdale, I tender my heartiest thanks 
 
 for the interesting incidents which they have kindly 
 
 furnished. 
 
 A grand-daughter of Billy's has a pecuniary interest 
 
 in the sale ol ihe book, and 1 hope for her sake, and 
 
 that, by the blessing of God, it may strengthen the 
 
 faith, confirm the love, and stimulate the zeal of many, 
 
 it may obtain a yet wide: circulation. 
 
 F, W. B. 
 
 London, February 5, 1872. 
 
 PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH 
 EDITION. 
 
 ' I "HIS edition is substantially the same as the last, 
 but a few additions have been made, to rendei 
 the Memoir more complete. For the favour it con- 
 tinues to receive, and for the blessing of God, which 
 still manifestly rests upon it, I wish to express my 
 heartiest thanks. 
 
 London. Apnl 12, 187^ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. HIS CONVERSION 
 II. THE FIRST-FRUITS OF HARVEST 
 
 III, JOY UNSPEAKABLE AND FULL OF GLORY 
 
 IV. CHAPEL BUILDING . 
 V. THE PRAYER OF FAITH 
 
 VI. PURE RELIGION 
 VII. SABBATH KEEPING . 
 VIII. TRIALS AND CONFLICTS 
 IX. DRINKING AND SMOKING 
 X. REBUKE AND EXHORTATION 
 XI. FULLY RIPE FOR THE GARNER 
 
 PAGE. 
 I 
 
 10 
 
 22 
 
 35 
 53 
 
 62 
 
 69 
 76 
 
 88 
 
 96 
 
 103 
 

 
 
 3a^. 
 
 
 
 
1.1 i .r J ^JTZ / w / /^ 
 
\ 
 
 ^X^' -'^J -IC) A\ 
 
THE KING'S SON; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A MEMOIR OF BILLY BRAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 
 
 " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old things arf 
 passed away ; behold, all things are become new." — 2 Cor? v. 17. 
 
 THIS chapter, which is mainly devoted to Billy's own 
 account of his conversion, is a striking illustration 
 of this Scripture. Persons who only knew him after 
 this great change had been wrought in his heart by 
 the Truth and the Spirit of God, would never have 
 imagined that he had " run " to that " excess of riot " 
 which he so feelingly describes. But the same grace 
 which transformed a persecuting Saul of Tarsus into 
 the renowned Apostle l!Sf the Gentiles, and a blas- 
 pheming tinker of Bedford into one of " England's 
 most famous preachers and confessors," changed also 
 Billy Bray, fomierly a drunken and lascivious miner, 
 into a loving and consistent disciple of the Son oif 
 Qod, a living embodiment of the things which arc 
 "true," and "honest" and "just," and "pure," and 
 
Z THE KING S SON. 
 
 " lovely," and of " good report." The greatness and 
 thoroughness of the change he mercifully experienced 
 fully agree with those representations of it with which 
 all New Testament readers are so well acquainted. It 
 was a change from darkness to light, from hatred to love, 
 from despair to hope, from misery to joy, from death to 
 life. If the darkness was dense, the light into which his 
 soul was ushered was " marvellous," revealing a new 
 world of spiritual glories and realities ; if the hatred 
 was bitter, the subsequent love was self-sacrificing and 
 complete ; if the despair was tormenting and terrible, 
 the hope was correspondingly peaceful and brighj ; if 
 the misery was profound, it was succeeded by "joy that 
 was unspeakable, and full of glory ; " and if the death 
 was like the shadow and the actual precursor of the 
 " second death," the life was spiritual and divine, God's 
 own immortal and glorious life in the human soul. 
 Xy But of the great and gracious change, the reality of 
 which his whole Hfe afterwards testified, Billy Bray shall 
 ^ presently speak himself. It is only necessary for us to 
 state that he was born at Twelveheads, a village in the 
 parish of Kea, near Truro, Cornwall, on the ist of June 
 I7_94. The village then consisted of only a few thatched 
 cottages, inhabited by " tinners," but which had its 
 humble Methodist chapel, where his paternal grandfather 
 worshipped, and which he had helped to build. He was 
 
 (one of the old Methodists, for he joined the then persecuted 
 and despised people when Mr Wesley first visited Corn- 
 wall. Billy's father was also pious, but he died when 
 his children were very young, who then went to live with 
 their grandfather ; ar.d with him Billy remained until he 
 > was seventeen years old, when he went to Devonshire, 
 \ where, far removed from pious example and instruction, 
 I he " lived a bad life." He says : 
 4^ "I becam»> the conipa'^»on of drunkards, and during 
 
ON THR BRINK OF RUIN. 3 
 
 that time I was very near hell. I remember once 
 getting drunk in Tavistock ; when going home we 
 met a large horse in the way ; it was late at night, and! 
 two of us got on the horse's back ; we had not gone far; 
 before the horse stumbled against a stone, and, turning 
 right over, both of us were nearly killed. At another 
 time I got drunk, and while fighting with a man my hat 
 fell into the fire, and was burnt. I stole another to wear 
 home, and narrowly escaped being sent to jail for it." 
 
 His drunken_frolics were many, which he could not 
 recall without deep shame and sorrow ; but his soul was 
 stained with viler sins than any that have been mentioned. 
 His gratitude was lively ever afterwards because the 
 Lord had saved him " from the lowest hell." " The Lord 
 was good to me," he often said, " when I was the servant 
 of the devil, or I should have been down in hell now ; " 
 and he felt he must praise the Lord for His goodness. 
 His hairbreadth escapes from danger, though he was 
 such a wicked wretch, made an impression on his heart 
 at the time, and a deeper impression afterwards. He 
 was emphatic in his wish that all the evil should be faith- 
 fully recorded, that the great mercy of God might be more 
 fully known. " Once," he tells us, " 1 was working under- 
 ground, and I heard a ' scat '(rent) overhead ; I ran out, 
 and, I think, forty tons fell down where I had been 
 working but a minute before." 
 
 But he had not yet reached the lowest depths of evil 
 and misery. Turned away from the mine at which he 
 worked for being msolent to the " captain," he removed 
 to another part of Devonshire, and as if to make his 
 damnation sure, wgnt to live at a beer-shop. We may I 
 follow the course of his narrative again : — ' 
 
 " There, with other drunkards, I drank all night long. 
 But I had a sore head and a sick stomach, and worse 
 than ail, hcirrorb of mind tiiai no tongue can tell. I u>^ed 
 
4 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 to dread to go to sleep for fear of waking up in hell ; and 
 though I made many promises to the Lord to be better, 
 I was soon as bad or worse than ever. After being 
 absent from my native county seven years, I returned a 
 drunkard" 
 
 A whole world of misery that one word expresses and 
 reveals. Domestic happiness can find no place in the 
 home of a drunkard. His infatuation is as complete as 
 it is terrible. The wife of a drunkard, the child of a 
 drunkard, how much they stand in need of help and pity 
 is only known to God. Billy well knew that the wife of 
 a drunkard has reason to praise God when her husband 
 is saved from intemperance if nobody else has. His wife, 
 he tells us, had to fetch him home night after night from 
 the beer-shop. 
 
 " At one time I remember I went to get some coal ; 
 there was a beer-shop in the way " [alas ! that there are 
 so many beer-shops, for every one of them is in the way 
 of some poor drunkard], " and coming home I went in, 
 and stayed till I got drunk. My poor wife was forced 
 to come for me, and wheel home the coal herself, h 
 drunkard would rather spend his money in drink than 
 give it to his wife and children. At one time I had good 
 wages for two months successively, and ;^5 of the money 
 went in drink. I sinned against light and knowledge ; 
 i and never got drunk without being condemned for it ; " 
 his conscience tormented him by day, and dreams terri- 
 fied him by night. 
 
 But the crisis of his life was now at hand. He was 
 about to be recovered to truth and holiness, and Bunyan's 
 ** Visions of Heaven and Hell " was the appointed means 
 of his recovery. The book came into his hands, and he 
 began to read it, the " Visions of Heaven" first, and then 
 the " Visions of Hell." Bunyan saw, he says, two lost 
 souls in hell cursing each other, for being the author of 
 
tf 
 
 BEGINS TO PRAY. 
 
 each other's misery, and that they who love one anothei, 
 on earth will hate one another in hell. One of Billy'si 
 companions, to whom he was much attached, was alsoj 
 much attached to him. They worked together, and went | 
 to the alehouse and got drunk together. The arrow that 
 pierced his soul was the thought, "Shall S. Coad and I, j 
 who like each other so much, torment each other in hell? " ; '; 
 From that time, November 1823, he had a strong desire ll 09 
 to be a better man. He had married some time before ; V/t 
 his wife had been converted when young, but had gone 0^ 
 back from the right way before marriage. The remem- 
 brance of what she had enjoyed was very sweet, and yet 
 very bitter. She told her husband that "no tongue could w 
 tell what they enjoy who serve the Lord." " Why don'i Ij 
 you begin again.?" was his pertinent inquiry; adding, 
 " for then I may begin too." He was ashamed to fall 
 on his knees before his wife, " for the devil had such a 
 hold of him ; " but he knew it was his duty to pray for 
 mercy. He went to bed without bending his knees in 
 prayer ; but about three o'clock he awoke, and thinking 
 that if he waited until his wife was converted that h<» 
 might never be saved ("though he had begged she 
 would get converted first, and then show him how to be 
 saved, for he thought she was so much less a sinner than 
 himself that she would soon be forgiven "), he jumped out 
 of bed and got on his knees for the first time, and forty 
 years afterwards he could joyfully boast that he had never 
 once since been ashamed to pray. His decision, once 
 formed, was unalterable, " and I found," he said, " that 
 the more I prayed the more I felt to pray." The whole 
 forenoon was spent in supplication. If he had been less 
 resolute and in earnest, the day of grace might have passed 
 unimproved, the blessed opportunity have fled for ever. 
 Forty years ago, on pay-days and setting-days,* miners 
 
 * C>;>v<i appointed for making contracts for work. 
 
 6JV 
 
6 THE KING S SON. 
 
 in Cornwall were in the habit of going to the alehouse 
 to eat, drink, and get drunk. This day, so auspiciously 
 begun, was one of those days, and Billy joined his com- 
 panions as usual. " I was the worst of the lot," is his 
 own expression. " He was the wildest, most daring and 
 X reckless of all the reckless, daring men ; and on one occa- 
 ' , sion so fearful was his blasphemy, that his wicked comrades 
 ; I declared that his oaths must come from hell, for they smelt 
 ' ^ of siclplmr.'"' Kis liveliness of disposition, his power of re- 
 partee, his mother-wit marked him out from others, and 
 
 ^ 
 
 the same remarkable natural powers were used to produce 
 
 merriment and laughter, and to turn sacred subjects into 
 ridicule and fun, that subsequently made him so popular 
 and useful as a follower of the Saviour and a preacher of 
 His gospel. The change in him was noticed by his com- 
 panions, and one of them swore. This elicited the 
 reproof, " You must give an account of that some day," 
 when the other mockingly answered, " Shall we all go to 
 the * Bryanites '* meeting V to which Billy replied it was 
 better to go there than to hell. Reproached by another 
 , . " for making such a noise, he replied, ' You would roar 
 ^ \\ out too, if you felt my load, and roar I will until I get it 
 'I off.'" 
 
 On the first pay-day that he came home sober for many 
 years, his wife, he says, " was greatly surprised and asked, 
 ' How is it you are come home so early to-night } ' and 
 she had for answer, ' You will never see me drunk again, 
 by the help of the Lord.' And she never has since. 
 Praise the Lord He can cure drunkards. 
 
 " That same night I went up-stairs, and prayed till we 
 
 went to bed. The next day I did not go to work j I 
 
 / took the Bible and Wesley's Hymn-Book, went up-stairs, 
 
 / and read and prayed all day. Sometimes I read the 
 
 / Bible, sometimes the Hymn- Book, and then I cried to 
 
 1 * So th«- Bible I'hristians were thco ijciiersllv ca led 
 
SEEKING THE LORD. 7 
 
 the Lord for mercy. I was glad that I had begun to seek 
 the Lord, for it is said, * Let the heart of him rejoice that 
 seeketh the Lord.' When Sunday morning came it was 
 very wet ; the * Bible Christians ' had a class-meeting a 
 mile from our house ; I went to the place, bu^because it i 
 was wet none came." I 
 
 This had an unfavourable effect on his mind, and his I 
 first thought was, "If a little rain will keep the people 
 away from the house of God, I shall not join here." Thisj 
 hasty decision was soon reversed, for Billy was a consistent 
 onember with , the Bible Christians for more than forty >^ 
 years, and died in communion with the people of his early 
 choice. But how much harm lukewarm and careless 
 professors do to inquirers after salvation and young 
 converts it is impossible to determine. The class-meeting 
 has perhaps been a greater benefit to Methodism than 1 1 "^ 
 any of her institutions besides. To multitudes it has 
 been a safeguard in danger, a comfort in trouble. But 
 in these, in some respects, degenerate days, attendance 
 at the class-meeting is by many deemed unnecessary 
 and in some quarters it has become quite unfashionable ^ ^\ 
 The results are such as might have been predicted with 
 certainty. The example of the older members is most 1 
 disastrous in its effects on the habits of the younger ones, ; < 
 and a feeble, stunted piety is, uahappily, characteristic of , 
 too many of our churches. /'^ V iy / 
 
 But Billy returned home, and alone with God, with 
 the Bible and the Hymn-Book as his companions,^ he 
 spent all that day in reading and praying. He was as- 
 sailed fiercely by the temptation " that he would never | 
 find mercy ; " but with the promise, "Seek, and[je shall 
 find," he quenched this fiery dart of the wicked one, and ' 
 in due time he learnt, by blessed experience, that the 
 promisejwas _/r?^^. Monday forenoon was spent in the 
 same manner. In the afternoon he had to go to the mine. 
 
t THE /CI JVC's SON. 
 
 but " all the while I was working I was crying to the 
 Lord for mercy." His sad state moved his fellow-work- 
 men to pity ; he " was not like Billy Bray," they said. 
 Why ? Because he formerly told lies to make them laugh, 
 and now he was determined to serve the Lord. No re- 
 lief came, and he went home, " asking for mercy all the 
 way." It was then eleven o'clock at night, but the first 
 thing he did was to go up-stairs and fall upon his knees, 
 and entreat God to have mercy on him. Everything 
 else was forgotten in the intensity of his desire that the 
 Lord would speak peace to his soul. After a while he 
 went to bed, but not to sleep. All the forenoon of the 
 next day he spent in crying for mercy, food being almost 
 untasted, and conversation with his "partner" at the mine 
 in the afternoon nearly ceased. That day passed away, and 
 nearly the whole night he spent upon his knees. The enemy 
 " thrust at him sore," but " I was glad," he says, " that 
 I had begun to seek the Lord, for I felt / would rather 
 be crying for mercy than living in sin." On the next day 
 he had " almost laid hold of the blessing," but the time 
 came for him to go to the mine (two o'clock in the after- 
 noon). The devil strongly tempted him while at his 
 work that he would never find mercy ; " but I said to 
 him, ' JZhou art a liar, devil,' and as soon as I said so, I 
 felt the weight gone from my mind, and I could praise 
 the Lord, but not with that liberty I could afterwards. 
 So I called to my comrades, * I am not so happy as some, 
 but sooner than I would go back to sin again, I would be 
 put in that " plat " * there, and burned to death.' " When 
 he got home on former nights he had not cared anything 
 about supper, his anguish of soul being so great, nor did he 
 this night, because a hope had sprung up in his hear<-, and 
 with it a determination to press right into the king^dom of 
 heaven. To his chamber fie agam repaire3^ Beautifully 
 
 * An open space near the shaft of a mine. 
 
A GLAD MAN. 9 
 
 simple and touching are his own words. " I said to the 
 Lord, ' Thou hast said, They that ask shall receive^ they 
 that seek shall /ind^ and to them that knock the door shall 
 be opened^ and I have faith to believe it.' In an inst _ant 
 the Lord made me_ so_ha22Y that I cannot express what 
 I felt. I sho ut ed for joy. I praised God with my whole 
 heart for what He had done for a poor sinner like me ; 
 for I could say, The Lord hath pardoned all my sins. I 
 think this was in November 1823, but what day of the 
 month I do not know. I remember this, that everything 
 (ooked new to me, the people, the fields, the cattle, the trees. 
 I was like a man in a new world. I spent the greater part 
 of my time in praising the Lord. I could say with Isaiah, 
 ' O Lord, I will praise Thee, for though Thou wast angry 
 with me. Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst 
 me ; ' or like David, * The Lord hath brought me up out 
 of a horrible pit of mire and clay, and set my feet upon 
 a rock, and established my goings, and hath put a new 
 song in my mouth, even praise unto my God. I was a new 
 plan altogether^ I told all I met what the Lord had done 
 for my soul. I have heard some say that they have had 
 hard work to get away from their companions, but I sought 
 mine out, and had hard work to find them soon enough 
 to tell them what the Lord had done for me. Some said 
 I was mad ; and others that they should get me back 
 again next pay-day. But, praise the Lord, it is now more 
 than forty years ago, and they have not got me yet. They 
 said I_was a wz^^-man, but they meant I was a glad-maiaf 
 and, glory be to God 1 I have been glad ever since." 
 
lO THE KING'S SON. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST-FRUITS OF HARVEST. 
 
 " Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we shovild be 
 a kind of fir^i-fruits of His creatures "—James i. i8. 
 
 BILLY BRAY'S own account of his conversion bears 
 the impress of truth and reality. The sceptic who 
 tried to reason him out of his convictions, or to rob 
 him of his perfect peace, his living joy, his immortal hope, 
 utterly failed. I have witnessed some such attempts ; but, 
 as Billy said, they had no more effect than "a drop of water 
 upon a duck's back." If nothing is so divine as experi- 
 ence, and if the deeper it is the diviner, Billy had good 
 reason to be satisfied with his. His was no ordinary 
 struggle, but it ended in perfect liberty of soul. He 
 could say — 
 
 " A(? condemnation now I dread." 
 
 The conflict was terrible, but t he victo ry was all the 
 jOQre glorious. The trial of his faith was sTiarp,'^rni6 
 reward was sweeter ever afterwards. He knew more 
 certainly, how inconceivably great and glorious was the 
 salvation which is by faith in Christ Jesus with eternal 
 glory. He was filled with a holy rapture of soul, which 
 nothing could restrain. His words, his tones, his looks, 
 had a magnetic p ower. He was, so to speak, charged 
 with a divine electricity, and the effects thereof were 
 ' sudden and marvellous. He could no more help speak- 
 ing of Christ and His salvation than the sun can help 
 shining, or the trees in spring can help budding and 
 blossiming; into beauty and life. The light that was 
 
HIS WIFE SA VED. 1 1 
 
 kindled flashed with unusual splendour, but it increased 
 in brightness even unto the end. His wife was tn. -irst 
 to yield to his holy entreaties, and about a week after- 
 wards in Hicks' Mill Chapel (which has been, happily, 
 the birthplace of hundreds of souls) she regained the 
 blessing she had lost. He had spent much of his time 
 in his unconverted state in telling lies to " make fun," as 
 his companions called it ; " but now I could tell them a 
 new tale about heavenly truths, and what the Lord had 
 done for me." This was not so pleasing to many ; but 
 " it was not long before some of them were as mad as 
 I was." The open confession of Christ is a solemn 
 duty cf His followers ; it is an inestimable privilege 
 also. How much this duty is neglected, how much 
 this privilege is despised, multitudes know to their sor- 
 row. Billy's w ords thrill us wi th^ joy, and yet produce 
 much self-reproach and self-condemnation as we tran- 
 scribe them. 
 
 "There were men who professed to be converted before 
 I was, but did not love the Lord enough to own Him, 
 and us enough to pray with us and tell us we were going 
 to hell. But when I was conve rted, praise the Lord, He 
 gave me strength to tell all I met with, that I was happy, 
 and that what the Lord had done for me He would do 
 for anybody else that would seek His face. There was 
 nobody that prayed in the mine where I worked ; but 
 when the Lord converted my soul He gave me power to 
 pray with the men before we went to our different places 
 to work. Sometimes I felt it a heavy cross, but the 
 cross is the way to the crown. Sometimes I have had 
 as many as from six to ten men down with me, and I 
 have said, * Now, if you will hearken to me, I will pray 
 for you before we go to work, for if I did not pray with 
 you, and any of us should be killed, I should think it was 
 my fault.' Some of them would say, ' You pray and w( 
 
12 THE KrATG'S SON. 
 
 will hear you.' Then I should pray in what people call 
 simple language, but as I hope the Lord would have 
 me. When praying I used to say, ' Lord, if any of us 
 must be killed, or die to-day, let it be me ; let not one of 
 these men die, for they are not happy ; but I am, and if 
 I die to-day I shall go to heaven.' When I rose from 
 my knees, I should see the tears running down their 
 faces ; and soon after some of them became praying men 
 too." 
 
 The individ'ial cases of conversion are too numerous 
 for us to relate here ; but one or two may be given as 
 specimens of the rest. 
 
 " An old man, called William S , with his son, used 
 
 to work near me, and as they were not converted I used 
 to tell them what the Lord was willing to do for them, 
 and then I would kneel down and pray for them until 
 the tears came into the old man's eyes. But such powei 
 has the devil over poor sinners, that soon after I should 
 hear him swearing at his son. And I was tempted not 
 to pray with him again, but, thank the Lord, I did not 
 yield to the temptation. I continued to pray with him, 
 and before the poor old man died he was made very 
 happy in Jesus." 
 
 O Christian reader ! " of some have compassion, 
 making a difference : and others save with fear, pulling 
 them otit of the fire /'* If every convert only felt that he 
 was a voice for Christy how many would hear the gospel 
 that go down into the grave in silence ; if every one only 
 felt that he was a hand for Christy how many would be 
 snatched from death and destruction who now become an 
 easy prey to the Evil One. Take another case : — 
 
 " There was Justin T ,who was with me in Devon- 
 shire ; we were companions in drunkenness, and came 
 home to Cornwall at the same time. I was converted 
 before he was ; and when I told my comrades what 
 
THE POWER OF PRAYER, l^ 
 
 danger the wicked were in, and where they would go ii 
 they died in sin, they would persecute me, and call me a 
 fool. But J. T. used to say, ' You shall leave that man [ 
 alone, and say nothing to him, for I knew him when he 1 
 was a drunkard, and now he is a good man ; I wish I | 
 was like him.' The7t my heart went out after J. T. ^ 
 One day when at work in the field, I knelt down to pray 
 for him. The Lord spoke to my mind^ ' / will save him 
 soon.* When I next saw him I told him I had good news 
 for him, for while I was out in the field praying for him 
 the Lord told me he should be converted soon. And so 
 he was. Shortly after his conversion he was taken ill. 
 I saw him many times in his illness, and he told me he 
 was happy in Jesus, and going to heaven to praise God 
 for ever." 
 
 Some parts of this narrative may appear to be strange 
 and inexplicable even to some of the Lord's children. 
 They never heard the Lord speak to them in the way 
 just described. Would that they had ! F or when G od 
 impresses^^rsons to pray for any particular blessing, it 1 
 is_a sure sign thaf"He is about to bestow that blessing I 
 u£on them. Definiteness of aim in prayer, combined |< 
 with a holy persistency, will surely hit the mark. We 
 quote just one more case, as it illustrates Billy's quick- 
 ness of thought, and the happy way in which he could 
 turn a phrase, for which he was so remarkable. 
 
 " I worked with a man before I was converted called 
 William Bray, and he was, like myself, a very wicked 
 man. Both of us were promoted at the same time, for 
 he was made ' captain ' of the mine, and I was adopted 
 into the royal family of heaven, and made a child of God. 
 I had not seen him for a long time, when one Monday i 
 evening it was impressed on my mind that if I went to I 
 see him he would be saved. And I went, nothing doubt- 
 ing, and found him at home. I prayed with him ; told 
 
14 THE KING'S SUN. 
 
 him what the Lord would do for him ; and soon ha 
 found the Saviour, and was made happy in His love. I 
 saw him many times in his last sickness, and he was 
 very happy and full of faith. Just before he died he sent 
 for me, as he wanted to tell me that Christ was his. 
 Then he had a good shout, and said, ' Christ is mine, 
 and I am His.' These were the last words he spoke to 
 me, and soon after he was taken to paradise. Since 
 then, four of his children have gone to meet him, and 
 his wife will no doubt soon, for she too is in the road 
 to heaven." 
 
 Mr Ashworth truly says that Billy was one of those 
 * happy, unselfish men who love everybody, and with 
 simple earnestness he spoke to all — rich or poor — about 
 the love of Jesus. He gloried in religious revivals, and 
 shouted for joy when he heard of souls being saved any- 
 where." 
 
 Mr A. illustrates this trait of his character by relating 
 an extraordinary incident, full details of which the Rev. 
 W. Haslam, of Little Missenden, Bucks, has, at my re- 
 quest, kindly supplied. He says : — 
 
 *' I had often heard of Billy Bray at Baldhu, from his 
 brother James, and wished very much to see him. One 
 morning, three months after my conversion,* I heard 
 
 * The reader will be interested in the following account of the conversion 
 of this good clergyman, from his own pen. "In the hey-day of my pros- 
 perity, and in the success of my sacramental ministrations, while I thought 
 the church was the Ark — and no salvation could be had out of the church, 
 except by some uncovenanted mercy — one of my most promising disciples, a 
 regular communicant and zealous churchman, was taken seriously ill, and 
 was pronounced to be in hopeless ' galloping consumption.' The man was 
 my own servant, a gardener, and one to whom I was much attached ; not 
 exactly my spiritual child in the gospel, but my ecclesiastical rhild in 
 churchmanship, and a strong adherent who, with many others, upheld mc 
 and encouraged me in a place abounding with 'gospel men,' against Dis- 
 senters of various kinds. This man's heart failed him in the pnospect o/ 
 death ; his views and religious practices did n( t comfort him in the hour 
 
A PRESENT SA L VA TION. I 5 
 
 some one walking about in the hall of my house, * piaising 
 the Lord.' I rose from the breakfast table, and opened 
 the door to see who my happy, unceremonious visitor 
 
 of need, or give him assurance. He heard of others who could say theii 
 sins were pardoned, and read their title clear to mansions in the skies, 
 whereas, with his, as he thought, superior teaching, he was yet afraid to die. 
 He ventured to send for some Dissenter to talk to him and pray with him, 
 who went to work in a way just the reverse of the priest. Instead of building 
 up and comforting, the man plainly showed him he was a lost sinner, and 
 needed to come to Jesus, just as he was, for salvation and pardon. The man 
 was confident, ' Pray for yourself,' said he ; and he set before him the 
 finished work of Christ, as the sinner's substitute. The gardener was brought 
 under deep conviction, and eventually found pardon and peace through the 
 blood of Jesus. This was a great disappointment. Instead of rejoicing with 
 Christ over a lost sheep which he had found, I was angry with the sheep for 
 being found, and deeply mourned over what I considered a fall into schism ! 
 Grieved as I was, however, I loved my disciple, and went to see him, though 
 not till after several urgent invitations to go. I endeavoured to reclaim him, 
 but the man was too firmly persuaded to be shaken from * the truth as it is 
 in Jesus.' Instead of lying on a bed of suffering, he was walking about the 
 room, praising God in a most joyful state. * Ah, John, you are excited, you 
 have been taking wine ! ' ' No, master,' said the man, * I have not touched 
 a drop of it — no, dear no, that is not it, dear master. I know you love me 
 and I love you — you don't know this joy and pe^^e, I am sure you don't, or 
 you would have told me of it. O master 1 pray tne Lord to give it to you 
 ^I will never rest praying for you — don't be angry with me — the Lord bless 
 you and convert your soul 1 You have been a kind good friend to me, I 
 cannot forget or leave you. I will pray for you while I live, for the Lord to 
 save your soul.' I could not stand this pleading, and fled from the house 
 in a tumult of disappointment and confusion." His heart was now " broken 
 for work." A visit to a brother clergyman deepened his convictions; for 
 he plainly told him that " if he had been converted he would have rejoiced 
 in that man's salvation and praised God with him, and that he would never 
 do any good in his parish till he was converted himself," " So deep became 
 bis distress, that, when the bell tolled for service on the following Sunday 
 morning, he trembled and feared to preach ; " but while preaching on the 
 words — What think ye 0/ Christ 1 the Lord showed him so clearly that 
 Christ was the true and only foundation, the Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sin of the world, that his soul was filled with joy, "as full of joy as it had 
 been of misery ! " The fervour and earnestness with which he now proclaimed 
 " a present salvation caused a general cry for mercy, and many of his 
 parishioners were saved." It was no wonder that Billy wished to see him, 
 to give his eyes a treat, and to witness some of the blessed results of his 
 prayer of faith years before 
 
l6 THE king's son. 
 
 could be ; — and then for the first time beheld this queer- 
 looking man. I asked him who he was. He replied, 
 with a face beaming with joy — 
 
 *' * I am Billy Bray — be you the " passon ? " ' 
 
 " * Yes,' I answered. 
 
 " * Converted, are ye ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, thank God.' 
 
 " * Be the missus converted ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 " * Thank the dear Lord,' said he, coming into the 
 room to make his bow to the said missus. Then he in- 
 quired of her if she had any maids in the house. 
 
 " * Yes, there are three.' 
 
 *' * Are they converted ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 " ' Where be they .? ' 
 
 " ' In the kitchen.' So he proceeded thither, and soon 
 we heard them all praising the Lord in Cornish style with 
 a loud voice. 
 
 " After a time Billy joined us again in the dining-room, 
 to take, by invitation, some breakfast, but before he sal 
 down he approached me and suddenly put his arm round 
 me, and took me up, and carried me round the table, and 
 then, setting me down at my chair, rolled on the floor for 
 joy, and said he was as 'happy as he could live.'* We 
 
 * Many persons have b=en treated by Billy in much the same way as the 
 good cicrg>nian. The first time Mr Maynard saw him was at Deliverance 
 Chapel in 1844 under these circumstances. When he was in the pulpit a 
 little man came in, turning up the white of his eyes, and praising the Lord. 
 He thought at once, as the eyes of all the people were instantly upon the 
 new-comer, and as a smile, as if a magic-wand had been used, passed ove! 
 their faces, " This, then, is the famous Billy Bray, about whom I have heard 
 so much " After the service, Billy did not exactly carry the preacher, but 
 he dragged him round the pulpit pew to the amusement of the peope, shout- 
 ing and jumping with all his might the whole time. When he let the preacher 
 go, he asked him whether he could stand that or not " Yes, much more 
 thAU tiiat," was the answer. " All right, frici.d Maynard. praise tiie Lord." 
 
BILLY AND THE ^* PASSON." 1 7 
 
 persuaded him to sit down and get some breakfast, as he 
 had been riding in a slow-going donkey cart since mid- 
 night through the cold night air of January. He said he 
 had heard of our conversion, and had been begging Father 
 to give him leave to visit us. He received permission to 
 do so just as he was getting into bed at half-past eleven. 
 So he put up his clothes again, and ' hitched in the don- 
 key,' and came along singing all the way. 
 
 " Then he proceeded to tell us why he was so anxious 
 to see us. He said, some years before that time he was 
 walking over the place where the house stands, and the 
 Lord said to him, ' I will g ive thee all that dwell on this 
 njeuntain.' So he knelt down immediately and prayed 
 for all who lived there, and then proceeded to the various 
 cottages which were situated on that hill, and continued 
 to visit the people in those cottages till they were all brought 
 to the Lord. Then he knelt down and complained that 
 there were * only three housen ' there, and received a 
 promise that there should be some more. He never 
 forgot this, but continually mentioned it in his prayers to 
 the Lord till, to his joy, one day he received a letter from 
 his brother James to say they were planting the hill and 
 going to build a church there, and then his brother wrote 
 to say they were building a house (the Vicarage) — then 
 again another house (the School). Dear Billy redoubled 
 his efforts of prayer and faith, and when the church was 
 opened he came to see and hear for himself, and was dis- 
 gusted and disappointed to find a * Pusey there preaching.' 
 He went away unhappy, and it came to his mind that he 
 had no business to come to see till Father had bidden. 
 So he departed to the neighbourhood of Bodmin where 
 he then lived, and remained there. After a few years 
 
 On my first interview with him he carried me round tlie room many times, 
 continually asking me, " Is not this 'pretty' riding, dear?" But I was too 
 much disconcerted, half-amused, half-frighten.:;d, to be able to answ":r. 
 
 B 
 

 1 8 THE KINdS SON. 
 
 Inews reached him of the clergyman's conversion, and also 
 that there was a great revival in the place. He then 
 praised God and begged permission to go and see this 
 passon and his missus, and continued to beg till he ob- 
 tained permission. 
 
 "After breakfast he went off to the school-house, and 
 found the schoolmaster and his wife both converted, then 
 to another house where the people were all converted. 
 His joy was unbounded, he jumped and danced, and 
 clapped his hands, he shouted and he sang ! The happy 
 man was beside himself, and beyond himself ! " 
 
 He began to publicly exhort men to repent, and turn 
 to God, about a year after his conversion. Towards the 
 end of 1824 his name was put on the Local Preachers' 
 Plan, and his labours were much blessed in the conver- 
 sion of souls. He did not commonly select a text, as is 
 the general habit of preachers, but he usually began his 
 addresses by reciting a verse of a hymn, a little of his 
 own experience, or some telling anecdote. But he had 
 the happy art of pleasing and profiting the people, so that 
 persons of all ages, the young as much as the old, of all 
 classes, the rich as much as the poor, and of all charac- 
 ters, the worldly as much as the pious, flocked to hear 
 bim, and he retained his poptilarity until the last. As 
 the Rev. M. G. Pearse says, " From one end of Corn- 
 wall to another no name is more familiar than that of 
 Billy Bray. 
 
 ** On Sundays, when one met crowds of strangers 
 making for the little white-washed chapel that was perched 
 up amongst the granite boulders, or when one found the 
 quiet ' church town ' thronged by the well-dressed people, 
 the usual explanation was that Billy Bray was going to 
 preach. 
 
 ♦* If you had overtaken Billy on the way you could 
 not h.ive bpoD lon£,' in doubt a> to who he was. A little, 
 
KEAP AS VE HAVE SOWN 1 9 
 
 Spare, wiry man, whose dress of orthodox black, and the 
 white tie, indicated the preacher. The sharp, quick, 
 discerning eye that looked out from under the brows, the 
 mouth almost hard in its decision, all the face softened 
 by the light that played constantly upon it, and by the 
 happy wrinkles round the eyes, and the smile that had 
 perpetuated itself, — these belonged to no ordinary man. 
 And with the first suspicion that this was Billy Bray 
 there would quickly come enough to confirm it. If you 
 gave him half a chance there would certainly be a 
 straightforward question about your soul, in wise, pithy 
 words. And if the answer was what it should be, the 
 lanes would ring with his happy thanksgiving." 
 
 I remember once hearing him speak with great effect 
 to a large congregation, principally miners. In that 
 neighbourhood there were two mines, one very prosper- 
 ous, and the other quite the reverse, for the work was 
 hard, and the wages low. He represented himself as 
 working at that mine, but on the " pay-day " going to 
 the prosperous one for his wages. But had he not been 
 at work at the other mine ? the manager inquired. He 
 had, but he liked the wages at the good mine the best. 
 He pleaded very earnestly, but in vain. He was dis- 
 missed at last with the remark, from which there was no 
 appeal, that he must come there to work if he came there 
 for his wages. And then he turned upon the congrega- 
 tion, and the effect was almost irresistible, that they must 
 serve Christ here if they would share His glory hereafter, 
 but if they would serve the devil now, to him they must 
 go for their wages by and by. 
 
 !f he quoted the wonderful saying of our Lord, " I am 
 the bread of life," he would proceed in some such strain 
 as this : " Precious loaf this ! The patriarchs and pro- 
 phets eat of this loaf, and never found a bit of crust about 
 It The apostles and martyrs eat of this loaf, too, for 
 many long years and never found a bit of * vinny ' in it 
 
20 THE KlNdS SON. 
 
 And, bless the Lord ! poor old Billy Bray can eat it 
 without teeth, and get fat on it." 
 
 Mr Tabb says that at the opening of Trecrogo Chapel, 
 in the Launceston Circuit, the crowd that came to hear 
 Billy was so great they were obliged to have the service 
 in a field. The subject of his address was *' Happiness," 
 and, as his custom was, he interspersed his discourse 
 with some pointed remarks on Teetotalism. Thinking 
 that some of his hearers would probably think he was 
 pressing the duty of self-denial and self-sacrifice too 
 closely, he burst out — " Vou may think we have nothing 
 to drink, but we have. My father keeps a wine-shop." 
 An apt reference to Isa. xxv. 6 followed. And his ima- 
 gination once fired, the most fastidious could listen to 
 him with pleasure, and even the wise and learned to edi- 
 fication. At such times he would generally express his 
 determination to live up to his glorious privileges, and 
 enjoy the varied abimdatice of his Father's house. Some 
 could only eat out of the silent dish, but he could eat out 
 of that, and out of the shouting dish, and jumping dish, 
 and every other. 
 
 His preaching was effectual because he prayed much. 
 By prayer he opened God's hand when it was filled with 
 blessings, and by prayer, too, he kept the devil under 
 restraint, who was to Billy Bray, as we shall clearly see 
 further on, just as he was to Martin Luther, and John 
 Bunyan, and George Fox, a very real person. This is 
 strikingly characteristic of him. Mr Maynard says, 
 " Many a time, when he and I have been leaving my 
 home together, he has said to me, ' Now, friend Maynard, 
 let us pray a minute before we go, or else the devil will 
 be scratching me on the way. If I leave without praying, 
 this is the way he serves me ; but when I get on my knees 
 a min'jte or two before leaving I cut his ould(old) claws, 
 and then he can't harm mc : so I always like to cut his 
 claws before 1 go.' " 
 
DOUPTFRS AND SHOUTERS. 21 
 
 There was great excitement, and much apparent 
 confusion, in some of his meetings, more than sufficient to 
 shock the prejudices of highly-sensitive and refined, or 
 over-fastidious persons. Billy could not tolerate '' dead- 
 ness," as he expressively called it, either in a professing 
 Christian or in a meeting. He had a deeper sympathy 
 with persons singing, or shouting, or leaping for joy than 
 he had with 
 
 '* The speechless awe that dares not move, 
 And all the silent heaven of love ; " 
 
 but his services, with all their simplicity and warmth, 
 were distasteful only to a few, and many were so far con- 
 vinced that his method was right, or were so far in- 
 fluenced and attracted, as heartily to join with him. He 
 speaks of one who worked with him in Devonshire, and 
 returned at the same time to Cornwall. They were also 
 converted together, but while Billy joined the Bible 
 Christians, his companion cast in his lot with the Wes- 
 leyan Methodists. Their names were put on the plan at 
 the same time, and when Billy was appointed at a chapel 
 near where his friend lived he came to hear him, but 
 would leave immediately after ttie preacher had done 
 speaking, as he could not enjoy the subsequent proceed- 
 ings, some singing, some praying, some shouting, some 
 dancing, scenes to be frequently witnessed when the 
 Cornish people get what they call the ** victory " through 
 the blood of the Lamb. But one Saturday night John 
 had a dream which brought him to the conclusion that 
 he was wrong in opposing shouting when the Lord 
 made His people happy. The next night, and ever after- 
 wards, he remained until the end, and " shouted " as 
 loudly and " leaped " as joyfully as Billy himself. 
 He lived a good life, and died a happy death ; Billy 
 dismissing him with the characteristic remark — " So 
 he has done with the doubters^ and is got up with the 
 sfuyitters" 
 
82 THE king's SON. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 JOY UNSPEAKABLE AND FULL OF GLORY. 
 
 " Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see Hira not, 
 yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." — i Pet. i. 8. 
 " Rejoice in the Lord alway ; and again I say. Rejoice." — Phil. iv. 4. 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER says, " It is always 
 infelicitous when men fall into the habit of speak- 
 ing of religion as the mother of trials, and of their 
 Christian experience from the side of its restrictions and 
 
 limitations When people want to make things 
 
 attractive in farming, they give exhibitions of their pro- 
 ducts. The women bring their very best butter, moulded 
 into tempting golden lumps ; and the men bring the 
 noblest beets and vegetables of every kind ; and from the 
 orchards they bring the rarest fruits, and when you go 
 into the room where all these things are displayed, they 
 seem to you attractive and beautiful. 
 
 " It seems to me that this is the way a Christian church 
 ought to represent the Christian life. You ought to pile 
 up your apples and pears and peaches and flowers and 
 vegetables, to show what is the positive fruit of religion. 
 |But many people in Christian life do as farmers would do 
 who should go to a show, and carry — one, pigweed ; 
 another, thistles ; another, dock ; and another, old hard 
 lumps of clay ; and should arrange these worthless things 
 along the sides of the room, and mourn over thenL 
 What sort of husbandry would that be ? Christians are 
 too apt to represent the dark side of religion in their con- 
 versation and meetings." 
 
JfjiVOURITE SCRIPTURES. 23 
 
 It was Billy Bray's excellence and glory that he always 
 represented the bright side of religion to his fellows ; to 
 him, indeed, it had no other. He had a nature that 
 tended " to produce joy ; " but whatever may be the tem- 
 perament of persons, unquestionably " the effect of the 
 whole of religious living is to produce joyfulness." 
 
 Payson said on his dying bed, " If men only knew 
 the honour and glory that awaited them in Christ, they 
 would go about the streets crying cut, ' I am a Christian ! 
 I am a Christian ! ' that men might rejoice with them in 
 the blessedness of which they were soon to partake." 
 Billy did this all his life long, and verily he had his 
 reward. He tells us, soon after his conversion, " I was 
 very happy in my work^ and could leap and dance tor 
 joy under ground* as well as on the surface. My com- 
 rades used to tell me, tha* was no religion, dancing, 
 shouting, and making so mucn * to-do.' But I was born 
 in theyfr*?, and could not live in the smoke. They said 
 there was no need to leap, and dance, and make so much 
 noise, for the Lord was not deaf, and He knows our 
 hearts. And I would reply, * But you must know that 
 the devil is not deaf either, and yet his servants make a 
 great noise. The devil would rather see us doubting 
 than hear us shouting.' " 
 
 The reader can easily imagine what were Billy's fav- 
 ourite portions of Scripture and hymns, but we may quote 
 one or two of the former that he repeated thousands of 
 times. " Thou hast turned for me my mourning into 
 dancing ; Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me 
 with gladness ; to the end that my glory may sing praise 
 to Thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give 
 thanks unto Thee for ever " (Psalm xxx. 11,12). " Then 
 shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and 
 
 * Once he said he had felt "the joys of religion at 250 1" fc^., "two 
 hundred and fifty fathoms below * grass. ' " 
 
24 THE king's son. 
 
 old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy, and 
 will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their 
 sorrow" (Jer xxxi. 13), The idea that these and similar 
 passages had a figurative and not a literal meaning, he 
 held in the greatest contempt. If persons attempted, 
 either playfully or in earnest, to argue the point with him, 
 he would turn upon them all his powers of wit and sar- 
 casm, and all his treasures of experience and Scripture, 
 and such was his holy ardour and impetuosity that from 
 such assaults many found the only safe refuge to be 
 either silence or flight. " David danced," he never for- 
 got to tell us, " before the Lord with all his might ; " and 
 that he " and all the house of Israel brought up the ark 
 of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of a trum- 
 pet," and that what David did surely all the people might 
 do under a happier dispensation, and that the opposition 
 of the unconverted or formal professors was like that of 
 '* Michal, Saul's daughter," who, when she saw " King 
 David leaping and dancing before the Lord," " despised 
 him in her heart." The song of Moses and the children 
 of Israel after they had safely passed through the Red 
 Sea, he also used with excellent effect. To any person 
 who objected to the meetings on account of their noise 
 and uproar, and many have objected to them on that 
 account, he thought it quite enough to say that when the 
 foundation of the second temple was laid " all the people 
 shouted with a great shout," and " that the people could 
 not discern the voice of the shout of joy from the noise of 
 the weeping of the people : for the people shouted with 
 a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off." On any 
 who said — 
 
 " But what confusion is this here ? 
 
 What noise of tumuU do I hear ? 
 
 How ill it suits this place ! " 
 
 and who demanded that •' calm serenity should prevail " 
 
THE LORD^S PARLIAMENT. 2$ 
 
 when they worshipped God, that their " pleas," like "tran- 
 quil sonnets," might ^^ gently pierce the peaceful skies," 
 he would retort "that we must have a/«//joy ourselves 
 to know what a full joy means ; " and he hardly ever 
 failed to add, " Our blessed Lord has said, * Ask, and ye 
 shall receive, that your joy may be fulV " 
 
 The account of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem 
 was another choice incident, sweeter to his taste than 
 honey or the honeycomb. He used 4o\positivel)r i^evel 
 in the statements, " And a very great multitude spread 
 their garments in the way ; others cut down branches 
 from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the 
 multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, 
 Hosanna to the Son of David ! Blessed is He that cometh 
 in the name of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest ! " And 
 if it happened at the time of a contested election he would 
 
 sometimes ask, " May all the people shout ' for 
 
 ever ! ' and no person find fault, and may not Billy Bray 
 shout * Jesus for ever t ' " 
 
 Usually, I suppose, his remarks would be to the 
 following effect, as Mr Maynard says that he has so 
 heard him speak many a time : " If this is worth shouting 
 for, our election is worth far more, for those who get 
 elected, and sent up to the House of Commons may 
 soon die, or lose their seat at the next election, conse- 
 quently their honour and happiness may not last long ; 
 but, if we get elected into the Lord's Parliament, and 
 once get into the Parliament House of Heaven, we shall 
 never die, never get turned out ; hence, we have more 
 reason to shout than they." 
 
 But the narrative of the lame man, " whom they laid 
 daily at the gate of the temple which was called Beau- 
 tiful," • was perhaps most precious of all. " And he 
 leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them 
 into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising 
 
26 " THE KING S SON. 
 
 God." If he made this incident the subject of an 
 address, he would ask if the dear Lord could not now do 
 as He had done in days of old? He had healed a 
 cripple forty years old, who leaped for joy when he was 
 healed; and Billy would "leap," or "run," if he had the 
 chance, and praise God, for had not he as good a right 
 to do so now as that cripple had then — he that was 
 never a cripple and never was lame ? — or that he had 
 got something more than lame legs cured, his never- 
 dying soul i:aved ? He ought, he thought, to leap four 
 feet to his two. " It was Peter who took the lame man 
 by the hand ; but it was the Lord who gave him strength 
 in his ankle-bones, that made him run and leap. He 
 did not praise Peter, he praised the dear Lord ; and so . 
 would I. It is before the Lord we should leap and 
 dance and shout. Satan has his merry-men* and they 
 do more wickedness by their actions than by what they 
 say, for actions speak louder than words. Now I am a 
 merry -man for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the best 
 Master, and gives the best wages. The devil gives 
 iorrow for joy ; but the Lord gives joy instead of 
 sorrow, 'beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourn- 
 ing, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi- 
 ness.' " 
 
 And is all this to be denounced by men of the world, 
 or by Christians of different temperament, as " foolish 
 extravagance ? " Was it not predicted that " the lame 
 man should leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb 
 sing ? " Billy could not understand how any could be 
 dumb who were " born of the Spirit." They needed at 
 least to pray, " Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall 
 show forth Thy praise." It seemed natural, at any rate, 
 for him to sing and shout, to leap and dance, and, if we 
 may use the word, to caper for joy, for he seemed as 
 
 * A buffoon, a merryandrew. 
 
VICTORY AND GLORY. 7J 
 
 free from care, as frolicsome, as gay, as gladsome, as a 
 young lamb dancing m the meadow, or goat upon the 
 mountain crag. His joy was always fresh and pure, 
 exultant and full, even to overflowing. "It is a pooi 
 spectacle," he would say, " when we have nothing but 
 the telling part of the love of Christ ; it is the feeling 
 part that makes us happy." His choice friends were 
 neither ashamed to praise the Lord in the market nor in 
 the great congregation. Many a long journey, either 
 alone or with such companions — " birds of a feather," 
 was his expression — has he taken, and praised the Lord 
 all the way. He could say with the poet — 
 
 " Winter nights and summ«r days 
 Are far too short to sing His praise." 
 
 I remember taking a walk with him early one morning, 
 when his conversation was of heaven. He stopped, 
 as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. He 
 remained silent for a moment with uplifted eyes, which 
 almost immediately filled with tears ; a " Praise the 
 Lord ! " escaped his Hps, and he bounded away, though 
 an old man, like a hart or deer. When I came up to 
 him he was praising the Lord aloud, as if it was the 
 business of his life, and said, " My dear brother, if I only 
 lived to my privilege, I should not feel the ground over 
 which I walk." 
 
 At a district meeting held at Hicks Mill, in 1866, Mr 
 Ohver in describing the triumphant death of a woman, 
 said she died shouting Victory. This touched Billy's 
 heart, and he shouted " Glory ! If a dyitig woman 
 praised the Lord, I should think a living man might." 
 
 He would commonly address his fellow-Christians 
 thus ! " You praise God, and I will praise God, and we 
 will both praise God together ; " or, ** You be the parson, 
 and I '11 be the clerk ; — you sav, * Praise the Lord,' and 
 
2 8 THE KIMG^S SON. 
 
 V\\ say, * Amen ! ' or I '11 be the parson, and you shall 
 be the clerk — I '11 say, * Praise the Lord,' and you say, 
 Amen.' " If you did not join him in praising God, for 
 he would always at once begin, he thought you were 
 dead; " for is not," said he, " ' the Lord worthy to be 
 praised from the rising to the setting of the sun ? ' and 
 yet you will not praise Him at all." But he determined 
 if all other tongues were silent, that his should sing 
 God's praise ; if all other harps were hung upon the 
 willows, that his should wake the sweetest music ; and 
 if all other hearts were dull and cold and hard, his 
 should glow and flame with the fervour of devotion. He 
 rightly thought that 2^ young prince of forty years of age ^ 
 as he used often to term himself, had abundant reason to 
 rejoice. He was an adopted son of God, the " King of 
 kings," and therefore he was a prince already possessing 
 royal rights and privileges, and for him he exulted to 
 think his Heavenly Father had reserved everlasting glory 
 and blessedness. 
 
 I went with him one day to see a dying saint, whose 
 character had been unblemished for many years, but 
 whose natural disposition was modest and retiring al- 
 most to a fault. His face wore a look of ineffable dignity 
 and repose, lit up with a strange, unearthly radiance and 
 glory. He was just on the verge of heaven. He could 
 only speak in a whisper. He said, " I wish I had a 
 voice, so that I might praise the Lord ! " " You should 
 have praised Him, my brother, when you had one," was 
 Billy's quiet, but slightly satirical comment. 
 
 Billy's life was an almost perfect exemplification of 
 the threefold injunction : " Rejoice evermore. — Pray 
 without ceasing. — In everything give thanks." A Chris- 
 tian might be poor^ but it was his duty to " rejoice ever- 
 more ; " afflicted, but still he must " rejoice evermore ; " 
 tempted and tried and persecuted^ but he must, notwith- 
 
VINEGAR AND HONEY. 29 
 
 Standing, " rejoice evermore ;" and surely this is divine 
 heavenly wisdom, true Christian philosophy. Is there 
 not a special blessing for the poor ? Are they not often 
 "rich in faith?" and has not God chosen them "heirs of 
 the kingdom ? " Ought not they then to rejoice ? We 
 all know that affliction is not "joyous, but grievous, 
 nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of 
 righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." 
 It is a proof of our Father's special love, and what is 
 sufficient, if that is not, to cause us to rejoice ? And we 
 are expressly told that we are " to count it all joy when 
 we fall into divers temptations." So did Billy Bray. 
 He could smile through his tears. The sickness of a 
 child, the death of a wife, were powerless to silence his 
 voice, or to repress his joy. It is said that when his wife 
 died he was so overpowered with the thought of his 
 " dear Joey " having escaped from earth's toils and suf- 
 ferings to the rest and bliss of heaven, that he began to 
 jump and dance about the room, exclaiming, " Bless the 
 Lord ! My dear Joey is gone up with the bright ones ! 
 My dear Joey is gone up with the shining angels ! 
 Glory ! Glory ! Glory ! " " Here," he would say, " we 
 have a little bitter^ but it is mixed with a great deal of 
 iweet." Mr C. G. Honor, Primitive Methodist minister, 
 says that at a love-feast in their chapel at St Blazey, 
 when Billy was present, several persons spoke of their 
 trials, but said that their blessings more than counter- 
 balanced them. At length Billy rose ; clapping his 
 hands and smiling, he said, " Well, friends, I have been 
 ^taking vinegar and honey, but, praise the Lord, I 've had 
 the vinegar with a spoon, and the honey with a ladle.'' 
 He had trials as others, but " it was not worth while to 
 speak or write anything about them." Was he not on 
 the road to heaven, and why should not he praise God 
 every step of the way ? "I would rather walk to 
 
30 
 
 heaven," he has often said, " than ride to hell even in a 
 fine carriage." But it excites a smile to hear him speak 
 " of showing persons how we shall walk the golden 
 streets in heaven, and with golden slippers, too." The 
 death-chamber of many a " godly and devout " believer 
 has been filled with his praises. Blessed use he has 
 made of this incident in the life of the Rev. John 
 Fletcher. Mrs F. says, " On Wednesday he told me 
 he had received such a manifestation of the full meaning 
 of those words, God is love, as he could never be able to 
 express. ' It fills my heart,' said he, * every moment. 
 O Polly, my dear Polly, God is love ! Shout ! shout 
 aloud ! I want a gust of praise to go to the ends of the 
 earth.' " Billy nearly always expressed a wish when he 
 visited the sick and dying, that he might " see them in 
 heaven, dressed in robes of glorious brightness ; for," he 
 would add, in his quietest vein of humour, " if I saw 
 them there, / must be there myself too. They say that 
 every man has got a little self, and so have I too, 
 for 
 
 • I long to be there, His glory to share, 
 And to lean on Jesus' breast.' " 
 
 If people said he praised God too " loud" he v/ould 
 point heavenward and say, "Up there, we shall praise 
 Him 'more sweet, more loud;'" and sometimes, "If 
 the Lord were to stop my breath this moment " (sudden 
 death he used to call the fields' way to heaven), " I should 
 be with Him in heaven at once. / have a heaven wkiU 
 going to heaven" 
 
 " The men oi grace have found glory begun below." 
 
 If any man could sing, 
 
 " Heaven is my home," 
 
 it was Billy Bray. He said to a young friend on froing 
 
PRAISING WHILE WALKING. Jl 
 
 to bed one night, " If you find me dead in the morning, 
 mind you shout Hallelujah ! " She told him she did not 
 think it likely she should. " WTiy not ? " he asked. 
 " You might, for it would be all right." Blessed, blessed 
 experience this ! To be able to say truthfully, confi- 
 dently, " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," 
 is certainly the highest pri\alege of men here ; and this 
 Billy could say always. 
 
 We may fitly close this chapter by the relation of two 
 or three little incidents which illustrate the man and his 
 character more fully than the most elaborate description 
 could do. 
 
 In a friend's house, in Falmouth, he exhorted those 
 present to praise the Lord. Speaking of himself, he 
 said, " I can't help praising the Lord. As I go along 
 the street I lift up one foot, and it seems to say, * Glory ! ' 
 and I lift up the other, and it seems to say ' Amen ; ' 
 and so they keep on like that all the time I am walk- 
 ing." 
 
 Calling at a friend's house at a time when he had two 
 or three visitors, he received a hearty welcome to remain 
 and dine with them. He soon began to praise the Lord, 
 which was as natural to him as for the birds to sing. 
 He was asked if it was not possible for a man to get 
 in the habit of praising the Lord without knowing what 
 he was saj-ing. He very coolly said that he did not 
 think tlie Lord was much troubled with that class 0/ 
 persons. 
 
 On one occasion, when in the Penzance Circuit on 
 special work, he slept with T. A. Very early in the mom- 
 ing Billy was out of bed, jumping, dancing, and sing 
 ing the praises of God as usual. T. A. said, " Billy, why 
 are you out thus so early 1 You will disturb the family, and 
 perhaps give offence." The next moment Billy was again 
 lenpin^ and praising the Lord, and then, naming the 
 
$2 THE KING S SON. 
 
 members of the household and T. A., said, " They might 
 lie and sleep and let their wheels get rusty if they liked, 
 but he would see to it that his wheels were kept nicely 
 oiled, and ready for work ! " Then he fell on his knees 
 and prayed aloud for the master and the mistress of 
 the house and the members of the family, while his 
 prayer for T., A. was that the '''' Lord would have mercy 
 on him, and make him a better man than he appears to 
 ber 
 
 When Mr Gilbert was in the St Austell Circuit the 
 first time, Billy came to the anniversary of Tywardreath 
 Highway Chapel. The chapel was so full that, when he 
 came to the door, it was with difficulty he could get in ; 
 but he had no sooner uttered, in his own pecuHar tone, 
 the words, " Bless the Lord ! little Billy Bray is come 
 once more to Highway," than, as if by magic, a 
 passage was made for him through the crowded audience. 
 On reaching the pulpit he began to dance and shout be- 
 cause " little Billy Bray was again at Highway." He read 
 the first line of the hymn beginning — 
 
 " Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing," 
 
 and then said, "Just think, that^s nine hundt'ed and 
 ninety -nine more tha?i I have got" Mr Gilbert says that 
 he spent an hour or two with him in the evening, " I 
 told him that I had seen his mother at Twelveheads, and 
 that I found her in a very blessed frame of mind, and 
 that whilst I was praying with her she became so happy 
 that, although quite blind, she jumped and danced about 
 the house, shouting the praises of God ! Billy at once 
 became much excited, and, rising from his chair, began 
 to dance also. He then said, * Dear old soul ! dance, did 
 she 1 I am glad to hear that. Bless the Lord ! Well, I 
 dance sometimes. Why shouldn't I dance as well as 
 David ? David, vou say. was a king ; well, bless thp 
 
riVO FROCKS FOR ONE.. 35 
 
 Lord ! I am a King's Son ! I have as good a right to 
 dance as David had. Bless the Lord ! I get very happy 
 at times ; my soul gets full of the glory, and then I dance 
 too ! I was home in my chamber t' other day, and I got 
 so happy that I danced, and the glory came streaming 
 down upon my soul, and it made me dance so lustily that 
 my heels went down through the planchen.' " 
 
 Mr Gilbert adds : " When Billy was about to leave, in 
 company with a youth who had come with him, he said, 
 
 * Johnny and I, we'll make the valleys ring with our sing- 
 ing and praising as we go home ! ' I said, * Then you are 
 a singer, Billy/ * Oh yes, bless the Lord ! I can sing. 
 My heavenly Father likes to hear me sing. I can't sing 
 so sweetly as some ; but my Father likes to hear me sing 
 as well as those who sing better than I can. My Father 
 likes to hear the crow as well as the nightingale^ for He 
 made them both.' " 
 
 Mr Robins informs me that at a chapel anniversary he 
 said at one time : " I went in to Truro to buy a frock for 
 the little maid, and coming home I felt very happy, and 
 got catching up my heels a little bit, and I danced the 
 frock out of the basket. When I came home Joey said, 
 
 * William, where's the frock ? ' I said, * I don't know, " es- 
 en-a " in the basket t ' < No,' said Joey. * Glory be to 
 God,' I said, * I danced the frock out of the basket.' The 
 next morning I went to the class-meeting, and one was 
 speaking of his trials, and another was speaking of his 
 trials, and I said, ' I 've got trials too, for yesterday I went 
 into Truro, and bought a frock for the little maid. Coming 
 home I got catching up my heels a little bit, and 1 danced 
 the frock out of the basket.' So they gave me the money 
 I had paid for the frock, and two or three days afterwards 
 some one picked up the frock and brought it to me; so 
 I had two frocks for one- Glory ! " and he closed his 
 
 C 
 
54 Tf^f^ kir^c.*: <:(>/v. 
 
 narration with one of his favourite sayings when persons 
 opposed and persecuted him for singing and shouting so 
 much, "If they were to put me into a barrel, / would 
 shoui glory out through the bung-hole ! Praise the 
 Lord ! " 
 
 The Rev. S. W. Christophers says that " the first time 
 he saw and heard Billy, among other things he said was 
 this : ' If Billy gets work, he praises the Lord ; when he 
 gets none, he sings all the same. Do'e think that //<? '11 
 starve IMlly ? No, no, there's sure to be a bit of flour 
 in the bottom of the barrel for Billy. I can trust in 
 jesus, and while I trust 'im, //<?'d as soon starve Micliael 
 the Archangel as He 'd starve Billy I ' 
 
 " The next time I heard that voice was when, to all 
 human appearance, I was about t^o depart from this 
 mortal life. The hallowed stillness of my bed-room was 
 then broken by the distant sound of the well-known 
 ' Hallelujah ! ' and then the jubilant tones of the faithful 
 soul as he mounted the stairs singing — 
 
 'There, there, at His feet we shall suddenly rnt'et. 
 
 And be parted in body no more ! 
 We shall sing to our lyres, with the heavenly choirn, 
 And our Saviour in glory adore I ' 
 
 " I was raised up to see and hear Billy again, many, 
 many times. 
 
 " I remember somebody saying to him as he sat at a 
 friend's table, * How long should I pray at a time to keep 
 my soul healthy ? ' * Do 'e see that there piece of brass?' 
 replied he, pointing to a polished ornament on the chim- 
 ney-piece. * If you give that five minutes rub every now 
 and then you'll keep it bright ; but if you let 'im go a 
 long time without it, yo'.i will have a long rib to ^cl 'im 
 bright airain..' " 
 
CORNVi^Ai^L METHODISTS. J5 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHAPEL BUILDING. 
 
 " Tliou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion : for the time to favour her, 
 jwa, the set time is comt. For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and 
 favour the dust thereof." — Ps. cii. 13, 14. 
 
 PROBABLY no part of England is better supplied with 
 places of religious worship than the county of Corn- 
 wall. The great majority of these have been built 
 by the self-denying efforts and liberality of the poor rather 
 than by the encouragement and munificence of persons 
 belongljg to the wealthier classes. The power and effi- 
 ';acy of the voluntary principle may be here witnessed in 
 fiill operation on a large scale. The people generally 
 have put their " shoulder to the wheel," and have preferred 
 to help themselves to being dependent on the charity of 
 others — they have trusted almost wholly to God's blessing 
 on their own exertions. " Methodism," as the late Bishop 
 of Exeter told us, " is the mother-church of Cornwall," 
 and its different sections have a strong hold upon the 
 affections and sympathies of the population ; and not- 
 withstanding some defects of character, and extravagances 
 of worship — ignorantly or wickedly exaggerated by some 
 High-Church writers — they are honourably distinguished 
 for their sobriety and intelligence, and, greater honour still, 
 as a God-fearing, Christ-loving, and Sabbath-keeping people. 
 For this result we are largely indebted to men of the Billy 
 Bray type. This will be more evident in subsequent 
 chapters, but we have now to furnish some particulars of 
 his early chapel-building enterprises, in which, as in all 
 
36 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 his actions, he sought to do his Master's will and promote 
 His glory. Billy's o^-ti version of those occurrences, which 
 are so widely knovm and so deeply interesting, is ai 
 follows : — 
 
 "In the n©ignbourhood where I lived there were a 
 great many dark-minded, wicked people, and chapels were 
 few. The Lord put it into my mind to build a chapel. 
 My mother had a small place ; and by one of her little 
 fields there was a small piece of common. The Lord 
 opened my mother's heart to give a spot on that piece of 
 common to build on. When my mother gave me the 
 ground, I began to work as the dear Lord told me, and 
 to take away the hedge of my mother's field, and to dig 
 out the foundation for a chapel, or a house to worship 
 God in, which was to be called Bethel. Many will have 
 to bless God for ever that Bethel Chapel was built, for 
 many are in heaven already that were born there. In 
 that day there was but one httle chapel in our neighbour- 
 hood, at a place called Twelveheads, which belonged to 
 the Wesleyans. Our people had a little old house to 
 preach in, which would hold only twenty or thirty persons. 
 So we wanted a place to preach in, and the people a 
 place to hear in. Paul had a thorn in the flesh, and so 
 had I. For I had not only the wicked against me ; but a 
 little class which was held in the house where we preached ; 
 most of them turned against me, and tried to set the 
 preachers against me. But with all they could do, they 
 could not hurt me, though they made me uneasy at times. 
 When I had got out the foundation of the Lord's house, 
 we had preaching on the foundation-stone. [Mr A. says 
 that Billy, " standing on the stone, said, ' If this new 
 chapel, which they say is to be called Bethel, stands one 
 hundred years, and one soul be converted in it every year, 
 that will be one hundred souls, and one soul is worth more 
 than all Cornwall.' He then danced on the stone, and 
 
BETHEL CHAPEL. 37 
 
 shouted * Glory, glory, bless the Lord.' "] On the day 
 that it was laid one of our neighbours said he would not 
 give anything towards Billy Bray's chapel. He had two 
 horses that drew the whitn at the mine ; one of them was 
 taken lame in the field, and lost many days' work. 
 Then the people said that the horse was taken lame be- 
 cause the owner would not give anything to Billy Bray'a 
 chapel. But the people must know that it was not mine, 
 but the dear Lord's chapel. And it may be the Lord 
 punished him for not giving anything to His chapel. But 
 the chapel was never much good to that man, for he died 
 very soon after ; and the Lord enabled me to build the 
 chapel without his help, bless and praise His holy name. 
 When I had taken down the field hedge, cleared out the 
 foundation, had got some stone home to the place where 
 the chapel was to be built, when the masons had put up 
 some of the walls, and I had £,\^ 15 s. given me by friends, 
 the devil entered into some of my class-mates, who said 
 that the chapel ought not to be built there ; and when 
 my class-mates saw that they could not stop me, they 
 went to the superintendent of the circuit and told him 
 that he ought to stop me from building the chapel there, 
 for that was not the place, it ought to be built at Twelve- 
 heads^ or at Tippet fs Stamps. Our preacher came to 
 me, and told me that the class had been to him to stop 
 me from building the chapel where I had begun. Then 
 I told him that the Lord had put it into my mind to 
 build the chapel there, and I showed him what I had 
 done already towards building the chapel. It was 
 the preaching night ; and he asked me whether I 
 would be willing to cast lots whether the chapel should 
 be built where I had begun it or in another place * Yes,' 
 I said, * I was willing ; for I did not want to build the 
 chapel there unless it was the Lord's will.' In the even- 
 ing we went to meeting and most of our little class were 
 
3 8 THE K/J^G'S son. 
 
 there, and the men who were against me. After preach- 
 ing our preacher wrote three lots^ior Twelve heads, Tippet fi 
 Stamps, and Cross Lanes, which was the place where I 
 had begun my chapel. When they drew lots the lot came 
 for Cross Lanes to be the place for the chapel. They 
 then said they would help me to get on with it by 
 raising stone ; but telling about it that night was all 
 they did to help me. The following day one of them 
 came to me and said, 'We shall not help you, for Cross 
 Lanes did not ought to be the lot.' So I was as well 
 off as I thought I should be. I went to work, and 
 raised stone, and got mortar, and set the masons to 
 work. And the dear Lord helped me, for I was very 
 poor, and had no money of my own. But the dear 
 Lord raised me up friends, who sent me money to pay 
 the masons ; we got the chapel walls up, and timber for 
 the roof ; and then got it sawed and put up. But we 
 had not timber enough by one principal ; and I asked 
 my Heavenly Father to send me some timber, or money 
 to buy some. That morning there was a Wesleyan local 
 preacher home praying ; the Lord said to him while 
 he was on his knees, ' Go down and give William Bray 
 a pound note.' At that time there were no sovereigns ; 
 there were one pound notes, drawn on the banks 
 After he had taken his breakfast he came down to me 
 by the chapel, and said to me, * What do you want a 
 pound note for ? ' and I replied, * To buy timber to put a 
 principal up on that end of the chapel.' He said he 
 never felt such a thing in all his life, * for while I was 
 home praying this morning it was always coming into 
 my mind to go down and give you a pound note, and 
 here it is.' So I had the note, went to Truro, bought a 
 principal, put it up on the chapel, and there it is to this 
 day. When the timber was on the chapel, I went round, 
 and got two pounds towards cov-ering the chapel. At 
 
HIS CHILD S LIFE SPARED. 
 
 39 
 
 that time we had young children, and the youngest of 
 them was taken very ill. When my little maid was 
 taken ill, Satan tempted me that it would take seven 
 pounds to cover the chapel, and I had but two pounds ; 
 and our little one would die, and it would take one 
 pound to bury her, and then I should have but one 
 pound left. The devil tempted me very much on that 
 point ; for if I wanted it I had a right to take it, for the \ 
 dear Lord and * me ' in this place kept but one purse ;* | 
 and I paid any money that I earned at mine to the 
 chapel, when I wanted it. So I had but one to give my 
 account to, and that was the dear Lord, the very best 
 comrade that man can ever have. So the devil tempted 
 me that the child would die. While I was thus sore 
 tempted, it came into my mind that I should be paid 
 for building this chapel, and it was applied to me, * Be- 
 cause thou hast built this chapel, I will save thy child's 
 Ufe.' And I said, * Where is this coming from } ' And 
 it was said to me, * I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, be nothing doubting, it is I, saith the Lord ;' 
 and I beUeved it ; and it was so. When I went home 
 I told my wife that the child would not die, for the 
 Lord had told me so. She replied, ' Don't say so ; for 
 all the neighbours say she will die, she is so very ill.' I 
 then went to the mine to work ; when I came home the 
 child was not any better, and had not eaten any meat. 
 On that night the child was very ill ; and got no better 
 all the forenoon of the next day. She was very ill when 
 I came home to dinner. That day I was afternoon 
 ' core * at the mine ; and ever since the Lord converted 
 my soul I always felt it my duty to pray with my wile 
 and children before leaving my home to go to work. 
 
 • This expression may be misunderstood without an explanation. He 
 freely used his own money, when he had ariy. but ^\\j.i *a.>. ^:vrn hiqi ft> 
 tilt Lord's caiiM: w<p> sacredly auui'Ui ><i(ro 
 
4© THE KING^S SON. 
 
 We knelt do\xTi to pray ; the child was lying in the win- 
 dow-seat ; we had for dinner what was very plentiful at 
 that time, fish and potatoes ; and in my prayer I said, 
 * Dear Lord, thou hast said that my child shall live, but 
 she has not eaten any meat yet.' And she began to eat 
 meat there and then. She is living now, and is the 
 mother of ten children ; so the Lord made the devil a 
 liar once more. The devil did not do me any hurt ; he 
 only made me bolder. I had only two pounds ; and the 
 cost would be seven pounds by the time the roof was on. 
 I borrowed a horse, and rode ten or twelve miles from 
 where I lived, up among the farmers, and asked one of 
 them whether he had any reed to sell, for I wanted three 
 hundred sheaves. He told me he had, and that it was 
 £^1 for a hundred. So I told the fanner to bring three 
 hundred sheaves to me as soon as he could, and some 
 spears for them. But I did not tell him that I had only 
 two pounds. He brought down one hundred first, and 
 some spears. I had three pounds when he came ; so 
 I paid him for the hundred of reed, and the spears ; and 
 had a few shillings left. I asked the farmer to bring 
 down the rest of the reed as soon as he could ; but didn't 
 tell him I had not money to pay for it. And in wasn't 
 necessary that I should, for by the time the other two 
 hundred sheaves were sent a friend gave me money to 
 pay for it. Then I put a man to work to cover the roof, 
 and that would cost one pound ten shillings with a little 
 other work besides ; and when the man came to be paid 
 1 had but one pound ; so I wanted ten shillings more. 
 1 he Lord put it into my mind to go into a high road near 
 where a great many people went up and down to work ; 
 and the first man I met was P. B. I said to him, * You 
 have not given me anything yet towards my Father's 
 house.' And he said, *No; nor do I intend to.' I re- 
 pUed, ' What, are you "amind " for the Lord to say to you 
 
A WILLING SERVANT, 4 I 
 
 iTi that day, * You saw me hungred, and gave me no meat» 
 thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; a stranger, and ye took 
 me not in ; naked, and ye clothed me not ?' And he said, 
 * Well, I don't mind if I do give you ten shillings.' 
 I said, * That is just the money I want.' So he gave 
 me the ten shillings ; and I went home and paid the 
 thatcher. 
 
 " After that I wanted timber for the door and windows 
 and forms. A mine had lately stopped ; and they were 
 selling off the timber. There was a bargain in timber, 
 for one pound six shillings ; but I had not money to buy 
 it. To a friend who asked me whether I had been to the 
 mine, and bought any timber, I said I had not, because 
 I had no money. Then he gave me one pound, and with 
 that and some other sums the Lord sent me from other 
 places I was able to buy what I wanted. As the timber 
 had to be brought home to the dear Lord's house, I wanted 
 a horse and cart. One of our neighbours had a horse, 
 but he said she would not draw anything. I asked him 
 to lend her to me. He told me I might have her, but 
 she would not draw ; but I took the mare and put her 
 in the cart, and brought the timber home. I never saw 
 a better horse in my life ; I did not touch her with whip oi 
 stick, though we had steep hills to come up over. When 1 
 took back the mare, and told my neighbour, * I never saw 
 a better mare,' he said, * I never saw such a thing ; she 
 will not draw with any one else.' That mare was working 
 that day for a very strong company, Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost ; horses, angels, men, and devils must obey 
 them. If there had been no one there more powerful 
 than Billy Bray, she would have been as bad with him 
 as with anybody else. But, bless and praise the name of 
 the dear Lord, He said, *The horse shall work, for the timber [ 
 is to seat my house : ' and what the dear Lord says shall 
 be obeyed. 
 
42 THE KING S SOI^ 
 
 " I went on and finished the chapel. Then some of 
 them said, * Now your chapel is done, you shall not have 
 preaching there.' When they said that, I locked up the 
 ehapel door, and carried the key home, and hung it to a 
 nail behind the door. I said, * Lord, there is the key ; 
 I have done what Thou hast told me to do; the chapel 
 is built, and there is the key ; if it is Thy will the 
 key should stay there seven years, or that it should be 
 taken down every minute in the day, Thy will be done, 
 my dear Lord.' That very day our preacher appointed 
 services at the new chapel even more frequently than I 
 should have asked had I been present. They named 
 my chapel Bethel. We had preaching there every Sab- 
 bath, afternoon and evening, and class-meeting in the 
 morning. The Lord soon revived His work, and we 
 gathered a great many members. A large new chapel 
 has been built since near the old one, which has also 
 taken the name of ' Bethel.' The old one is now used 
 as a school-house, and for class-meetings. No wonder 
 that the devil was so against me while I was building 
 the old Bethel, and put his servants to hinder me, for I 
 have seen at one time fifty down asking for mercy, and 
 mercy they had. 
 
 " A little while after I had done building Bethel Chapel 
 the Lord said* to me, * I have made you instrumental in 
 building Bethel Chapel, and I will make you the instru- 
 ment in building one at Kerley DowtisJ When this was 
 applied to me I believed it, and rejoiced greatly to think 
 that I was honoured to work for so good a Master as the 
 King of heaven, and earth, and sky. Kerley Downs was 
 near a mile from where I lived, in the same parish. At 
 this place there was preaching in a dwelling-house, and a 
 class met in the same house. The friends had been try- 
 ing for some time to get a spot for a chapel, but had been 
 disappointed. They had made a collection for the chapel 
 
BUILDING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 43 
 
 they intended to have, but the site was sold to a man for 
 a higher price after it had been promised to the society. 
 One of the neighbours who owned a farm said to one oi 
 the class, ' Where is the n.oney you collected so long ago 
 towards a chapel ? which you have not begun yet.' He 
 said, * If you have a mind to build a chapel, you may have 
 ground of me.' I told the preacher we could have a spot 
 for a chapel, and if he did not call a meeting to appoint 
 trustees I should begin about the chapel myself. So he 
 appointed a day and got trustees ; but all that promiseJ 
 to help left me to myself. So my little son and * me 
 went to work, and got some stone ; the good friend who 
 gave the land lent me his horse and cart ; and we soon 
 set the masons to work. Those who read this must 
 remember that I was a very poor man, with a wife and 
 five small children at that time, and worked in the mine 
 underground. Sometimes I was forenoon * core,' and 
 when I had taken my dinner I should go to the chapel 
 and work as long as I could see, and the next day do the 
 same. The next week I should be afternoon ' core ; ' 
 then 1 should go up to the chapel in the morning and 
 work until the middle of the day, and then go home and 
 away to the mine. The week following I should be night 
 * core ; ' I should then work about the chapel by day, and 
 go to mine by night ; and had not the, dear Lord 
 greatly strengthened me for the work, I could not have 
 done it. When I was about the chapel, I had potatoes 
 to till in my garden; and every Sunday I was ' planned.' 
 Sometimes I had to walk twenty miles, or more, and 
 speak three times. I have worked twenty hours in the 
 twenty -four ; and had not the Lord helped me I could 
 not have done it. Bless and praise His holy name, * foi 
 in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.' I do know 
 He is a friend when all other friends leave us ; and Hf 
 will help us to overcome our enemies 
 
44 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 "UTien our chapel was up about to the door-head the 
 devil said to me, *- They are all gone and left you and the 
 chapel, and I would go and leave the place too.' Then I 
 said, ' Devil, doesn't thee know me better than that ; by 
 the help of the Lord I will have the chapel up, or lose my 
 skin on the down.' So the devil said no more to me on 
 that subject. Sometimes I have had blisters on my hands, 
 and they have been very sore. But I did not mind that, 
 for if the chapel should stand one hundred years, and if 
 one soul were converted in it every year, thai would be 
 a hundred souls, and that would pay me well if I got to 
 heaven, for they that * turn many to righteousness shall 
 shine as the stars for ever and ever.' So I thought I 
 should be rich enough when I got there. The chapel was 
 finished after a time : and the opening day came. We 
 had preaching, but the preacher was a wise man, and a 
 dead man. I believe there was not much good done that 
 day, for it was a very dead time with preacher and 
 people ; for he had a great deal of grammar ^ and but 
 little of Father, * It is not by might, nor by power, but 
 by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' If it was by wisdom or 
 might, I should have but a small part, for my might is 
 little and my wisdom less. Thanks be to God, the work 
 is His, and He can work by whomsoever He pleases. The 
 second Sunday after the chapel was opened I was ' planned ' 
 there. I said to the people, ' You know I did not work 
 here about this chapel in order to fill my pocket, but fot 
 the good of the neighbours, and the good of souls ; and 
 souls I must have, and souls I will have.' The Lord 
 blessed us in a wonderful manner. Two women cried to 
 the Lord for m.ercy ; then I said, * Now the chapel is 
 paid for already.' The dear Lord went on to work there ; 
 and the society soon went up from fifteen members to 
 thirty. You see how good the Lord is to me ; I spoke 
 for one soul a year, and he gave me fifteen souls the first 
 
A STRONG COMPANY. 45 
 
 year. Bless and praise His holy name, for He is good, 
 and His mercy endureth for ever, for one soul is worth a 
 thousand worlds. Our little chapel had three windows, 
 one on one side, and two on the other : the old devil, who 
 does not like chapels, put his servants by way of reproach 
 to call our chapel Three-Eyes. But, blessed be God, 
 since then, the chapel has become too small for the place, 
 and it has been enlarged ; now there are six windows 
 instead of three ; and they may call the chapel Six-Eyes 
 now if they will. For, glory be to God, many that have 
 been converted there are now in heaven. And when we 
 get there we will praise Him with all our might ; and he 
 shall 7iever hear the last of it. 
 
 " After this the Lord led me to build another chapel in 
 the parish of Gwennap. The Lord put it into the heart 
 of a gentleman to grant me a piece of land ; and after we 
 had dug out the foundation, we wanted stone to build with. 
 The Lord put it into my heart to go down by the railway 
 and try to raise stone. Some one had been there before, 
 and their quarry was poor. They had worked to the east 
 and to the west, and left a piece of ground untouched in 
 the middle. We went to work on this piece, and the 
 dear Lord helped me, as He said. Some wondered to see 
 what a lot of stone we got out. But they must know I 
 was working for a strong company, the Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost, and that company will never break. I 
 worked in my ' core ' at the mine all the while I was 
 raising stone ; and as I was living a great way from the 
 place where I was building the chapel, the Lord helped 
 me again by putting it into a gentleman's heart to give 
 me five shillings a month while I was raising stone for 
 the dear Lord's house ; at a coffee-house near the quarry, 
 when I came up from mine last ' core ' by night, I had 
 my breakfast for sixpence or sevenpence, and then away 
 to raise stone. When the masons were set to work, 1 had 
 
4© THE king's son. 
 
 no money in hand, and no bank to go to but the bank a*^ 
 heaven. But, thanks be to God, that is a strong bank ; 
 and I had often to go there by faith. At this time the 
 Lord sent Mr T. to me, who said, * You will want timber, 
 and lime, and slate, will you not ? ' I said, ' Yes, sir.* 
 Then he told me to go to his stores, and have what I 
 wanted. When the masons wanted money I went round 
 collecting, and the friends were very kind and gave me 
 money. I went to Camborne, and farther west. Amongst 
 other places I went to Helston, where there lived a miser 
 said to be worth a great deal of money, who was nevel 
 known to give anything to any object. When I asked 
 him for something for the chapel, he said he could not 
 afford to give me anything. I said, * You can give me 
 some money if you like, and if you do not you may soon 
 die, and Leave it all behind. Job was very rich, but he 
 soon became poor. I am begging for the Lord's house, 
 and if you do not give me something the Lord may take 
 you away from your money, or your money away from 
 vou.' When I told him further that the gold was the 
 Lord's, he said, * Go round the town and see what you 
 can get, and come to me again by and by.' I said to 
 him, ' No, you have got money, and I must have some 
 now,' and talked to him about what the Lord would do 
 with greedy people. Then he wiped his mouth, put hisj 
 hand into his pocket four or five times and talked away, 
 but at last he took out two shillings and sixpence, and 
 gave me. It was a hard job to get even that from the 
 old miser. I do not think Satan let him sleep that night 
 because the dear Lord permitted me to take half-a-crown 
 from his god. When I told some of the friends that I 
 had got half-a-crown from him, they said * it was the 
 ^eatest miracle ever performed in Helston.' I had a 
 ' plan ' at St Just, and after I had done my work there I 
 vent on tn St Ives, ^vid was directed to find out a good man 
 
A GREAT CATCH OP FISH. 47 
 
 named Bryant. St Ives was a small place about the 
 year 1838. Friend Bryant told me that I had come to 
 St Ives at a very poor time, for there was but little fish 
 caught that year ; and some of the people were almost 
 wanting bread. * It was poor times,' I said, ' with Peter 
 when the Lord told him to let down the net on the other 
 side of the ship,' Br. Bryant missed, for I had come 
 at a very good time, as the event proved. We went up 
 to the Wesleyan Chapel ; there were a great many lively 
 members and we had a good meeting. We prayed to the 
 dear Lord to send S07nejish, and He did. After the meeting 
 was over, we went into a coffee-house to get a little 
 refreshment ; then we began our meeting, and continued 
 it till midnight, praying to the Lord to send in the fish. 
 As we came o"t of the meeting to go to our lodging, 
 there were the dear, poor women with the pilchards on 
 their plates, and the fish was shining in the moonlight. 
 The women were smiling, the moon was smiling, and 
 we were smiling ; and no wonder, for the dear Lord 
 put bread on many shelves that night, and blessed 
 many families. We asked the women what fish was 
 taken, and they told us that many boats had taken ten 
 thousand, and some twenty thousand. Against the next 
 day there were, if I mistake not, eight thousand casks 
 taken. And here I must speak it to their credit, though 
 the people had so many fish, and were so poor, they 
 rested on Sunday, and left it till Monday before they went 
 about their fish, and they lost none. Some of the fisher- 
 men said to me, ^ Now you shall have some m.oney for 
 your chapel ; and if you will get a boat and come out we 
 will give you some fish.' A friend with me, a carpenter, 
 a bit used to the sea, got a boat and rowed me to the 
 place where the fish were. They looked * pretty,' for 
 they were shining and leaping about, and the fisherman 
 dJDped up the fish ^nd threw them in^o our boat I 
 
48 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 thought of the church-ministers, who took their iiihe of 
 the corn ; but I took mine of the fish. When we came 
 to land, the carpenter ' told ' up the fish to the people 
 that bought them, and I took the money, which amounted 
 to ^6, 15 s. 
 
 " A druggist, also, promised me the profits of one week 
 on medicine sold, which brought me two guineas more. 
 Altogether I brought away from St Ives £17 towards the 
 chapel. So when I came home I could easily pay the 
 masons and carpenters. You see how the Lord helped 
 me through all, — first by putting it into a gentleman's heart 
 to let me have a spot to build on ; then to get good stone 
 in what had been only a poor quarry; also in sending 
 Mr T. to tell me, when I was not worth a penny, to go 
 to his store for timber and lime and slate ; then in 
 enabling me to collect so much towards the expense of 
 building ; and particularly at St Ives, when the dear Lord 
 sent the fish in answer to prayer. He has said, * Call 
 upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, 
 and thou shalt glorify me.' And we are ' in everything 
 by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to let our 
 requests be made known unto God.' Bless His holy 
 name : I will praise Him and glorify Him for ever and ever. 
 ' O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name 
 together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and 
 delivered me from all my fears. . . . This poor man 
 cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all 
 his troubles.' " 
 
 Many further interesting particulars respecting Billy 
 Bray's chapels might be given, but which we must mostly 
 omit. The details of one circumstance, briefly referred to 
 by Billy, we may append. One account I have received 
 speaks of Billy calling on a Mr T., a liberal gentleman 
 well known in the neighbourhood, but Billy speaks of the 
 Lord havinj,' " sent " Mr T. to him. Billy told the 
 
A GOSPEL FISHING-NET. 49 
 
 i 
 
 gentleinan that he was going " to build a ' fishing -net ' 
 near Carharrack, in order to catch the fine fish that might 
 be found in such large shoals in the neighbourhood." Mr 
 T. was so well pleased with the simplicity and earnestness 
 of Billy, that he said, " So, Billy, you are going to build 
 a * fishing-net,' are you ? I understand by that, that 
 you are going to build a chapel ; now when you have 
 succeeded in getting up the walls sufficiently high to 
 take the roof, let me know, and I will at once take steps 
 to give a roof to your * fishing-net.' " " Bless the Lord," 
 was Billy's response, and the same moment he was jump- 
 ing and dancing for joy ! When Mr T. was told that 
 the " fishing-net " required a roof, he said he would see 
 it to know what was wanted. On reaching the spot, he 
 expressed his surprise that so large a chapel had been 
 built, intimating that when he made the promise he had 
 no idea that Billy intended to erect such a large " fishing- 
 net." His answer was, " Bless the Lord ! my Heavenly 
 Father deserves a large house." Mr T. cheerfully ful- 
 filled his promise, and the "fishing-net'' was soon adorned 
 with a roof. The gentleman afterwards became a wor- 
 shipper in "Great Deliverance"* Chapel (the name it 
 received, and by which it is still known), and a valuable 
 member and class -leader. 
 
 When Billy was building his first chapel, some of his 
 friends, whose faith was not so strong as his own, told 
 him he had better build it with a chimney, so that it 
 could be turned more easily into a cottage if it did not 
 answer as a chapel. " No," he said, " I will have no 
 chimney in it, except it be to drive the devil out through," 
 though we fear a chimney would be but of little use for 
 that purpose. 
 
 When the little place at Kerley Downs was up, Billy 
 began to think where the pulpit could come from. At 
 last, as he looked about among some furniture at an auction 
 sale, his eye fell upon an old three-cornered cupboard. 
 
£0 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 I "The very thing," cried Billy, " the very thing. I can 
 cut a slit down the back of un, and strengthen the middle 
 of un, and put a board up in front of un, and clap a pair 
 o' steers behind un, and then the preacher can preach 
 out of un pretty/' 
 
 Wiih much glee he turned to some one near him, and 
 
 / asked, " What do 'e think they'll want for that there cup 
 
 board ? '' The man looked, and gave it as his opinion 
 
 that it would go for six shillings. Billy told him what he 
 
 meant to do with it, and the man said — " Why, you 're 
 
 j Billy Bray. Here, I'll give 'e the six shilling to buy it." 
 
 { After a while the cupboard was put up. Billy knew 
 
 nothing of auctions. All eager to have his pulpit, he 
 
 cried, holding out his hand — '• Here, Mister Aucti neer, 
 
 here 's six shillin' for un, I do want un for a pulpit." 
 
 Of course there was a great laugh at Billy's expense. 
 
 As it passed away the auctioneer cried — " Six shillings, 
 
 going for six." A nod from behind Billy was quickly 
 
 caught. " Seven," said the auctioneer, " seven shillings." 
 
 J " No," cried Billy, " 'tis on'y six, there's the money." 
 
 I Of course, down went the hammer, and much to Billy's 
 
 ■ astonishment the cupboard was not his. 
 
 ** Well, Father do know best," said he, in a rather 
 I disappointed tone ; " but anyhow I must give the man 
 1 back his six shilling." 
 
 The man was gone, nor was Billy likely to see him 
 again. This was a new and even greater trouble. 
 
 '' I'll be gone down an' tell Father about it," said Billy, 
 as he started off for his little chapel. 
 
 With faith renewed, and a comfortable assurance that 
 it would be all right, he was coming from the chapel 
 when he saw the cupboard going up the hill in a cart. 
 
 " I'll follow un, anyhow," he whispered, "an' see the 
 end." They carried it to a house, and tried to take it 
 Inside, but it was just too big to get in. They twisted 
 and turned, they pulled and pushed, bui it was no use. 
 
 \ 
 
THE 'A'ISR BhC.GAR 5^ 
 
 ♦' Here's a mess," said the purchaser, angrily ; " I've 
 given seven shilling for en, an' shall have to skat en up 
 for firewood." 
 
 Then as his eyes twinkled, Billy stepped over and put 
 his hand on the man's shoulder as he stood, hat in hand, 
 wiping his forehead. 
 
 "I'll give 'e six shillin' for un, if you'll carry un down 
 to my little chapel." 
 
 " That I will," said the man, pleased at being so well 
 out of it. 
 
 " Bless the Lord^'' cried ^illy, " His just like Him, 
 He knew I couldn' carry en ntyself^ so He got this man to 
 carry en for me"* 
 
 This chapter reads almost like a romance ; but the 
 devout reader will clearly see God's hand in the matters 
 related, and that His chosen instrument was eminently 
 qualified to carry out His purpose. The fitting of means 
 to ends has as remarkable illustrations in Providence as 
 in Creation. That same divine wisdom which chose 
 Luther to be the hero of the Reformation, and Wesley 
 and Whitfield to rouse a slumbering church and nation 
 from their spiritual lethargy, and Livingstone to be the 
 pioneer of the Gospel in interior Africa, endued Billy Bray 
 with all the needful qualifications " to serve his generation 
 according to the will of God " in the way described in this 
 chapter. The Lord made abundant use of his tact and 
 cheerfulness, because wholly devoted to Him. He suc- 
 ceeded therefore where others have failed, and brought 
 discredit upon themselves and their friends. Thus when 
 Billy appealed in one instance for a second subscription 
 in behalf of " Great Deliverance " Chapel, the gentleman 
 met him by the objection that he had subscribed to that 
 chapel once before. " Yes," Billy said, " but how many 
 deeces of wool have you had since then 1 " Nothing more 
 was said, but a donation was at once handed to the "wise " 
 
 • This graphic dcscripUon is f.on the pen of the Rev. M. (i Fcmso 
 
52 TITR RINCrS SON. 
 
 beggar. The success of a man whose temper is never a 
 fault, and whose wit turns everything to good account, 
 is certain. A friend who was with Billy on a begging 
 expedition, suggested, as they were coming near a 
 gentleman's house, and Billy was evidently making for 
 the front door, that it would be better if they went to 
 the back door, " No," said Billy, " I am the son of a 
 King, and / snail go frontways." And then his motives 
 were above suspicion, and his faith in God was of the 
 strongest kind. His own words are : " I have no more 
 fear of the Lord bringing me right out and right through 
 than if this road was covered with gold ; for His wordjs 
 as good as ready money." 
 
 We may and we do admire Billy's simplicity and per- 
 sistency of purpose, but his inward satisfaction none can 
 share. Wc get many glimpses of it, but we must content 
 ourselves with the briefest reference thereto. When he 
 was got an old man, and had forgotten perhaps many of 
 the exploits of his younger days, he heard in a public 
 meeting, many miles from his home, a person speak of a 
 man who had been instrumental in building several chapels 
 in which many had been converted, and in one of which 
 he, the speaker, had been a Sunday scholar. Billy was 
 hstening with interest to this recital, quite unconscious 
 that he was the person meant, but when his name was 
 mentioned his heart leaped for joy that he had been per- 
 mitted to do some good ; that he had persevered though 
 the people did say that Billy was silly ; that the Lord 
 had sent many wise men to preach in the chapels which 
 silly Billy Bray had built ; that though he was only a ram^s 
 horn, the Lord had given His people some silver trumpets; 
 that many were in heaven who had been converted in 
 these chapels ; and above all did he rejoice that his dear 
 Lord was the great master-builder, to whom all the praise 
 belono-'^ 
 
DOROTHEA TRUDEL. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PRAYER OF FAITH. 
 
 " And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall rai«;fc hiEo 
 cp." — James v. 15. 
 
 A FEW years ago there were " strange reports of won- 
 derful cures wrought in a remote Swiss village by 
 
 a Christian woman Wonders are out of 
 
 date in the nineteenth century ; there is a natural in- 
 credulity of everything like miracle, and the stories came 
 and went, were told and ridiculed, and dropped from 
 year to year. Yet any one having the curiosity to visit 
 .he " pretty " village of Mannedorf would have been well 
 repaid ; " for there lived Dorothea Trudel, who was 
 characterised after her conversion '* by great earnestness, 
 by singularly protound spiritual knowledge, and by a 
 quiet, happy, and modest Christian spirit. She was a 
 worker in flowers, and came, in time, to have workers 
 under her ; and when she was about thirty-seven, four or 
 five of her workers fell sick. The sickness resisted all 
 treatment, grew worse, appeared to be hopeless. She 
 was a diligent and unselfish nurse, and as a Christian hei 
 anxiety for the work-people drove her to earnest prayer 
 and careful consideration of the Scriptures. It was during 
 this period that, like a sudden light, she says the well- 
 known passage from James v. 14, 15, flashed upon her. If 
 medical skill was unavailing, was there not prayer .? And 
 could not the same Lord who chose to heal through 
 medicines, also heal without them ? Was He necessarily 
 restricted to the one means ? There was a time when 
 
54 THE KING S SOK. 
 
 fiis healing power went forth directly ; mi_:ht it not be put 
 forth directly still ? The doctors were at fault ; but was 
 not faith in God perhaps more at fault? Agitated by 
 these questions, she sought help in prayer. And then kneel- 
 ing by the bedsides of these sick people, she prayed for them 
 They recovered ; and the thought that at first had startled 
 her, became now the settled conviction of her hfe. A 
 sickness broke out in the village, and where it did break 
 out, her help, tenderness, and Christian teaching were 
 rarely absent. She sought the recovery of the patients 
 in answer to prayer alone. Many got better ; and as the 
 rumour spread, persons from the neighbourhood came oi 
 sent, and her leisure was fully occupied. 
 
 " Meanwhile she had resisted all solicitations to leave 
 her ordinary work, and establish a kind of cure. Her 
 proper calling, she considered, was the one which God 
 had provided for her — that of a worker in flowers ; her 
 natural shyness and reserve made her shrink from publi- 
 city ; but as increased numbers came and even besieged 
 her doors, she was compelled to reconsider her position, 
 and at last, with much reluctance, to receive persons 
 into her house. This was at first out of mere compassion, 
 when the sick had been brought from a distance and 
 could find no proper shelter or care if she turned them 
 away. By degrees the one house grew into three, and 
 her days were spent in superintendence and in constan 
 prayer ; patients came from France and Germany, an 
 even Great Britain. There came to be, in fact, an 
 hospital at Mannedorl." And in this work she con- 
 tinued until her death ; and whatever judgment may be 
 passed upon it, as the able writer says from whom we 
 have quoted, " it is worth record as a feature of ths 
 Christian life of our century. Nor is it solitary, others 
 are reported working similarly in other parts of Switzer- 
 land. P.qsror Blumhardt of Wurtemberg has bad his 
 
MIRACULOUS CURES. 55 
 
 house crowded with patients for years. Dr Bushnell in 
 his ' Nature and the Supernatural,' reports like instances 
 from America. There is no supposition of fraud. Will 
 mesmerism, animal magnetism, the power of sympathy, be 
 adequate explanation } Or is there still a prayer of faith 
 that shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up f " 
 
 That there is danger of this principle being perverted 
 and dishonoured, the " doings " of the " Peculiar People *' 
 are sufficient evidence. The slightest approach to extra- 
 vagance and fanaticism ought to be carefully guarded 
 against ; and even the method adopted by our Lord 
 when He wrought miracles for the relief of suffering men 
 during His brief sojourn upon earth teaches the same 
 lesson. Nature itself is a great dispensary where God 
 has treasured up His remedies for all diseases *' which 
 flesh is heir to," which are discoverable by patient and 
 prayerful study, and which is a sufficient indication of 
 His will and general method of working. But then, has 
 He so tied Himself up to merely natural laws and pro- 
 cesses that He has only one way of working left, only 
 one way of healing His children ,? This would be to 
 make " law " supreme and inexorable, and to concede 
 what sceptical philosophers have always demanded — viz., 
 that a miracle being contrary to the course and con- 
 stitution of nature is clearly impossible. 
 
 So much in expia.iation of certain facts in Billy Bray's 
 life which we could not entirely pass over, and which, in 
 fact, we gladly and gratefully record to the honour of 
 Him whose Providence never fails, whose Wisdom is 
 never baffled, and whose Power and Goodness can never 
 be exhausted. 
 
 " I am about," says Billy, " to write of a woman iii 
 whom God's power was made manifest in a wonderfa. 
 manner, I had the account trom her own lips twice, ana 
 1 will write down as near as I c^n what shf^ told n>e. 
 
56 THE king's son. 
 
 Florence Hoskin, for that was her name, was made a 
 cripple by the ill-usage of one of her family, and wholly 
 lost the use of one of her legs for seven years, and she 
 was obliged to go on a crutch and stick. She was so 
 weak that she was forced to drag her foot after her ; 
 and the doctor told her she would not have the use of 
 her leg any more. But he made a mistake, for she was 
 made sound again ; our God is a God of all power, and 
 there is nothing too great for Him to do. She was old 
 when she was converted. In 1 844, I think the Saturday 
 night before the first Sunday in July, she went to bed 
 greatly cast down. She prayed to her dear Lord, who 
 is able to heal both body and soul ; and that sister 
 Hoskin soon found to her joy and satisfaction. She 
 prayed away until the cloud broke from her mind, and 
 she was made very happy in the love of Jesus. Then 
 she said, * Now, my dear Lord, Thou hast healed my soul, 
 why not heal my body too ? ' She meant her lame leg ; 
 and when she said so, the Lord said to her, * Arise, and 
 go down to the Gospel-house, and there thou shalt be 
 healed.' Then she said, ' Why not be healed here, my 
 dear Lord .? ' for she was in bed, and it was an easy place 
 for a poor cripple. When she said so, the Lord's Spirit 
 was taken away from her. Then she said, ' I will go to 
 Thy Gospel-house, or anywhere else, only let me be healed, 
 my dear Lord.' Her Lord said to her, ' If I heal thee 
 here, they will not believe it, for there are many of them 
 IS unbelieving as the Jews were in Jerusalem.' And if 
 the dear Lord had healed her in the bed, many would 
 have doubted ; there are many unbelieving people in our 
 country, and it is hard to make them believe. The Lord 
 told sister Hoskin to go to the chapel, so that there should 
 be many witnesses of His mighty power in healing her. 
 It was on a Sunday that she rose out of her bed to go 
 to the Gospel-house to get healed, strong in faith ; but 
 
THE LAME WALKING. 57 
 
 when she got down-stairs it was as if the devil stood in the 
 door-way, to tempt her to have her breakfast first ; but 
 she said, * No, devil, I will not, for thou hast many times 
 tempted me to stay for breakfast, and I have had a dead 
 meeting through being so late.' So she left home with 
 her crutch and stick, and went away to her Gospel-house, 
 dragging her poor lame foot on the ground. When she 
 came to the chapel it was so early that there was no one 
 there. When her leader came, he said, * How is it you 
 are down here so early to-day, Florence ? ' She said to 
 him, * Great things are going to be done here to-day ; I 
 am going to have a sound leg, for the dear Lord has told 
 me so.' Her class-leader told her he thought she was 
 mad ; he said to her, * If she had not more faith than he 
 had, she never would be cured of her lameness.' So the 
 meeting began ; and while one was praying, Florence said, 
 * Pray away, the balm is coming.' She had faith to 
 believe, and when the meeting was over she could walk 
 about the chapel without crutch or stick. Some of the 
 people that saw her walking about the chapel at Porth- 
 leven, went round the little town and said, Florence Hoskin 
 is walking about the ' Bryanites' ' chapel without a crutch 
 or stick. A great many came together to see what a mir^ 
 acle the dear Lord had wrought. As she was going out of 
 the chapel, one person said, * Here, Florence, is your crutch 
 and stick,' when she answered, * You may have them if 
 you will, for I shall not want them any more.' And she 
 did not want crutch or stick any more while she lived. 
 Some foolish people will say, ' The Lord does not work 
 miracles in these days as in the days of old.' The dear 
 Lord does ; if we can believe. Florence Hoskin believed ; 
 and according to her faith it was done unto her, for she 
 (^ent away from her home a cripple, and in a few hours 
 came back healed : so it was well for her that she served 
 the Lord. Bless and praise His name for ever." 
 
5 8 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 Here is another case, as late as February 1865 : — 
 *' 1 went to Kestle Mill (to a Wesleyan Chapel to hold 
 a teetotal meeting), a place some miles from Newlyn. 
 A man who lived in Newlyn, called * grandfather,' who 
 was very lame^ wished to go with me ; but when we had 
 gone a little way he said he was so lame that he should 
 not be able to go on. I said to him, * You must go ; 
 Father must heal you.' He was going very lame when 
 I said this ; it was a great pain for him to walk. So I 
 looked up to heaven, and prayed, and said, * My dear 
 Father, heal him ; ' and the dear Lord made him a sound 
 man. He said, * All my pain is gone ; ' and he went on 
 CO Kestle Mill as fast as I could go. When we came to 
 the place * grandfather ' gave out a hymn and prayed ; 
 then he told the people what a bad drunkard he had been ; 
 but he was a teetotaler now, the Lord had converted his 
 soul, and he was a happy man. When grandfather had 
 done speaking, I spoke. Twenty signed the pledge. 
 Then we travelled home ; but I heard no more about his 
 pain. On the Tuesday we had a teetotal meeting at our 
 chapel in Newlyn, several Wesleyans on the platform. 
 On Thursday, the i6th, after I had spoken in the 
 Wesleyan Chapel at Newlyn, ' grandfather ' rose from 
 his seat, and told all the people in the chapel how that 
 he was almost a cripple last week, and how that the dear 
 Lord had healed him at once on Monday while going to 
 Kestle Mill, and that he had not felt any pain since," 
 
 Billy also speaks of a brother Hicks who " had been 
 in bed seven years, and was two years without speech, 
 whom the Lord brought out in one day ; " whose cure 
 was wrought when a good brother resolved that " he 
 would not cease praying for him until he could speak," 
 Billy's faith was unquestioning in whe power and will- 
 ingness of that Saviour who *' is in evf^ry place and age 
 nt* same." 
 
THE FRUITS OF A STRONG FAITH. 59 
 
 This is still more characteristic. At one time he had 
 a child seriously ill, and his wife feared it would die. 
 She wished Billy to go to the doctor, and get some 
 medicine. He took eighteenpence in his pocket, all the 
 money there was in the house. On the road he met 
 a man who had lost a cow, and was then out begging 
 for money to buy another, whose story touched Billy's 
 heart, and to him the money was at once given. H* 
 said afterwards, '* I felt after I had given away the money 
 that it was no use to go to the doctor, for I could not 
 have medicine without money, so I thought I would tell 
 Father about it. I jumped over a hedge, and while tell- 
 ing the Lord all about it, I felt sure the ' cheeld' would live. 
 I then went home, and as I entered the door, said to my 
 wife, *Joey, the checld's better, isn't it.-*' *Yes,' she 
 said. *The cheeld will live, the Lord has told me so,'" 
 was his answer, and the child soon got well. 
 
 But if these were the somewhat rare and more re- 
 markable fruits of a faith which " staggered not at the 
 promise of God through unbelief," it was ever in active 
 operation, always made him happy and contented with 
 his lot, saved him from all anxious care, and diffused 
 over the whole of his life a heavenly radiance, some of 
 the rays of which fell upon others wherever he went. 
 The deep wisdom of the principles he had adopted pos- 
 sibly he did not know himself, but of their reality and 
 blessedness he was fully conscious. How beautiful, how 
 instructive, showing how far Billy was removed from 
 fianaticism, is the following : — 
 
 " My wife said to me one day when lying on her sick- 
 oed, ' William, I do not see anything from heaven. 
 * Neither do I, and what need has the Lord to show us 
 sights,* [" Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not 
 believe," our Lord said to " a certain nobleman, whose 
 son was sick at Capernaum "1 * when we can believe 
 
6o THE KING'S SON. 
 
 without it ? '" Ke continued : " If I saw the Saviour a 
 babe in the manger, I should not believe it more than 1 
 do now. If I saw Him raise Lazarus out of the grave, 
 I should not believe it more than I do now. If I saw 
 the Lord Jesus raise the ruler's daughter or the widow's 
 son to life, I should not believe it more than I do now. 
 And if I saw the dear Lord nailed to the cross, and 
 heard Him cry, ' It is finished,' saw Him give up the 
 ghost, and rise from the tomb the third day, I should 
 not believe these things more than I do now." When 
 he said this his wife exclaimed, " And so do I believe 
 it," and they greatly rejoiced together. 
 
 This simple faith in God and in His Word, what 
 wonders it can accomplish. It is the " secret of power." 
 It is a choice and powerful weapon in the Christian's 
 armoury, which can be used at all times, and never fails. 
 But in dealing with the sick and ignorant it has a special 
 value. Billy speaks of an old man, who had been very 
 wicked, but who was seeking mercy. His visitor said to 
 him, " You need not fear, for if you ask the Lord for it 
 you are sure to find it. It is said, * Let the heart of him 
 rejoice that seeketh the Lord,' for they that seek are sure 
 to find Him, and when you have found Him you will 
 have a good prize." But the old man did not at once 
 get the blessing, and so Billy continued : " Suppose that 
 you were very poor, and you knew that there was a bag 
 of money in this room, and you were sure that if you 
 sought for it you would find it, and that it would supply 
 all your wants, and you would never be poor any more ; 
 then you would search the room with a good heart. The 
 Lord is here, and when you find Him you will have all 
 you want." As this was said, the old man sprung from 
 his seat, exclaiming, " I have got it ! " His wife heard 
 him, ran into the room, fell on his neck, both rejoicing 
 exceedingly in the God of their salvation. The old man 
 
A GREA T LOSS. fy\ 
 
 said, " I never felt anything so ' pretty ' in all my life." 
 But how much he lost, is Billy's reflection, because he did 
 not begin to serve God before. This incident reminds us 
 of another characteristic feature of our friend's life, but 
 which may very appropriately be dwelt on. more at length, 
 in our next chaotf r. 
 
6a TH& KINC^S SON. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessvt 
 oi my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation ol 
 the world : for I was an hungrcd, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, 
 and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me in : naked, and y« 
 clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came 
 unto me. . . . Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
 one of the least of these my brethren ye have done ii aiuo me." — Matt. xxv. 
 34-30. 40. 
 
 IN this memorable Scnpcare, we axe taught that the 
 humblest disciples — the poor, the sick, the despised 
 — are more precious unto their Divine Lord than is light 
 to the eye, or music to the ear, or knowledge to the mind, 
 or love to the heart. He so fully identifies Himself with 
 His people, that an injury done to them He reckons as an 
 injury done to Him, while a blessing bestowed upon them 
 is a blessing bestowed upon Him. It is no wonder, there- 
 fore, that the Apostle James should declare that ^^ pure 
 religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. 
 To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and 
 to keep himself unspotted from the world." These two 
 distinct parts of "pure religion" may be said to be equal in 
 importance, but it is to the first part — visiting the father- 
 less and widows in their affliction — that we now ask the 
 attention of the reader. 
 
 In this particular, Billy Bray may be almost said to 
 have had a chivalrous sense of duty and honour. Often 
 dependent himself on the charity of others — for which he 
 ^'as truly grateful, but not servile or obsequious — he tiladJv 
 
CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 63 
 
 shared with persons poorer than himself what little he 
 possessed. He could not keep two hats, one of his friends 
 says, two days, if he knew of a brother in Christ in want 
 of one. None enjoyed song and prayer and meditation 
 and worship more than he ; but he never once forgot, in 
 the fulness of his joy, that the naked had to be clothed, 
 and the hungry to be fed. He did not offer unto the Lord 
 his God that which cost him nothing. He not only 
 poured out all his heart in devotion to his Saviour, but 
 of his " substance " he willingly took for the Lord's work. 
 We sometimes get prayer instead of labour, or labour 
 instead of prayer ; beneficence instead of devotion, or 
 devotion instead of beneficence. Billy Bray had not sc 
 learned Christ. His religion was not one-sided, but fulh 
 developed in every direction. It was bright in its God- 
 ward aspects, but it also beamed on men with tenderness, 
 and offered them its gifts of love and service. When he 
 had exhausted his own little store in ministering unto the 
 wants of tlie poor, he sought for them help from others. 
 In one instance of this kind, a gentleman, to whom he 
 applied, gave him a sovereign for some poor persons, and 
 his lady also gave him some clothes for them. After he 
 had had tea, he said he must pray before he left the house, 
 for he felt it as much his duty to pray in a rich man's 
 house as in a poor man's. The gentleman and lady, with 
 some of their servants, knelt together at His footstool who 
 is " King of kings, and Lord of lords," while Billy poured 
 out all his heart, for he had sweet access to the throne of 
 grace. Some Quaker friends, whose kindness to Billy 
 all through life was very marked, were also appealed to^ 
 and with the three pounds he collected he bought food 
 and clothing for the family of a " quiet, thrifty, honest 
 man," — and what was a great recommendation to Billy, 
 one who neither drank nor smoked, — paid their quarter's 
 rent, filled the coua^e wiih sun:3hme and gladnei^i, an J 
 
64 THE king's son. 
 
 received himself the blessing of those that were ready to 
 perish. 
 
 Visits to such devoted Christians as Peggy Mitchell^ 
 the best scholar in Gwennap parish, because she could 
 read her " title clear to mansions in the skies," were 
 their ovvn exceeding great reward, and it was passing 
 strange to Billy that the duty of visiting the sick 
 should be so much neglected. But the unconverted 
 he sought out as well, and his message of mercy in many 
 a sick chamber God signally blessed. Sometimes young 
 persons of good position accompanied him to the house 
 of mourning, who were both greatly blessed, and made a 
 blessing. These, notwithstanding earthly distinctions 
 and differences, were his brethren and sisters in Christ 
 Jesus, and therefore greatly beloved for His sake. As 
 he had great tact and discretion, besides unfailing cheer- 
 fulness, his visits were by many eagerly sought and 
 highly prized. To one who had been a great sufferer 
 for many years, he said, " The pain of yesterday and 
 last night you will never feel any more. You are as well 
 off as the queen so far as yesterday is concerned. With 
 the queen yesterday is gone, and so is it with you ; " or 
 as another sufferer said to him, she could praise God, 
 "for every pain is a pain the less." Another person 
 whom he visited the same day, an aged Christian eighty 
 years old, — he tells us knew quite as much about the 
 dear Lord as he could tell her. She loved the Lord so 
 much that she did not know a mraQ good enough by which 
 to call Him. " Every word she spoke was sweet to my 
 soul," Billy said. And why ? he inquires. Because she 
 was filled, as were Barnabas and Stephen, with the Holy 
 Ghost. ^^ And Satan can do nothing by ' they ' who are filled 
 with the Holy Ghost." Another dear Christian, of five 
 and forty years standing, seen, too, the same day, was 
 one after his own heart, because the Lord had converted 
 
FL O WERS GROW IN SOFT P LA CF.^. 6 5 
 
 her "/« ^??^/ <?«/" in allusion to the excessive " outwaro 
 adorning " of some, which Billy strongly condemned. 
 
 (Sometimes in his public addresses, in allusion to the 
 artificial flowers with which so many " women professing 
 godliness " adorn themselves, he would say, " I wouldn't 
 mind your having a waggon-load of them on your heads, 
 if that would do you any good ; but you know it wouldn't, 
 and all persons know that flowers only grow in soft places.'" 
 And many persons can testify that men who made them- 
 selves ridiculous by their conceited airs and fine dress did 
 not escape his well-merited and striking rebukes. The 
 nicely-feathered arrow from his well-strung bow has often 
 gone much below the surface. His spirit was always 
 stirred within hmi when he saw men who spent more time 
 in "oiling then cob?).' or "twirling their whiskers," than 
 in prayer or che »e.-.ding of the Bible. Pity that so many 
 should be found to labour in trying to " destroy the fence 
 that separates the Church from the world," and to make 
 -by-standers believe that they are more concerned to 
 exhibit the graces of their p>er£,ons than they are to display 
 the beauties 01 holiness, 01 the glories of their Divine 
 Redeemer). 
 
 About the same time he found out another person, 
 whose class-leader had not been to see her but once for a 
 whole year, and he marvelled not that many became 
 therefore indifferent to heavenly things. He was not 
 sanguine about every case. He saw a person who had 
 been very wicked, and was told that he had been seekmg 
 the Lord a long time. He hoped he had ; but he added, 
 " It is dangerous to put off our soul's salvation until we art 
 on our death-bed ; for where there is one who gets the prize ^ 
 there are ten who lose it, and the same old devil that got ai 
 them down-stairs will get at them when they are in their 
 beds.''' An old woman who, with a crippled daughter 
 
66 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 lived in one little dirty down-stairs room, had a 
 word of encouragement. She had had many trials, but 
 she was very hopeful and trusting. The storm had 
 stripped her little cot of its roof, but the Lord had in mercy 
 spared both her and her daughter. Billy said to her, 
 " Heaven will be a * pretty ' place for you when you get 
 there. You will be able to say, * What a glorious place 
 I am in now .? I am not now dovm in the house with the 
 roof blown away ; I am not down now in a dirty little 
 room, with little meat and clothes ; — oh, what a mighty 
 change is this ! What a glorious place is heaven ! ' " 
 and he adds, " I believe if any will know the joy ol 
 heaven in its higher state, it will be those who have 
 suffered most down here." 
 
 I went with Billy one day to visit a preacher, who 
 while he was conversing and praying with him became 
 remarkably happy. Presently the sick man expressed a 
 hope that the Lord would take him to heaven, there and 
 then, as he felt quite ready for the change, and he should 
 not then grieve his best Friend again by carelessness or 
 unbelief. His wite, who was standing by the side of the 
 bed, turned away, her eyes filled with tears. To her 
 Billy immediately turned and said, " So you would not 
 like to have your husband promoted, then ? " And then 
 he took up his parable. " Don't you think that your eye 
 ought to be as much upon the L>ord Jesus Christ, as the 
 eye of a worldly woman is upon the Queen ? Now if 
 the Oueen were to send for the brother, or son, or 
 husband of any such woman, would not she say, ' I am 
 sorry to part with him, but it may be the making of him, 
 I must let him go. h is the Queen ivho has sent for 
 him.* And yet you know," he continued, " that it might 
 be a great expense to prepare him to go; or the Queen 
 might soon die, or he offend ner, and then he would be 
 
A ''FINK AND PRETTY CROWN, 67 
 
 as bad off as ever. But the Lord Jesus Christ is at all 
 the expense of the ^fit out,* He provides the robe hi 
 <<rhich your husband will be clothed, the crown that he 
 will wear, the palm that he v/ill wave ; the Lord Jesus 
 Christ will never die, and your husband wants to go be- 
 cause he knows he shall never offend Him again : now 
 ought you not to be willing f^"^ The distressed wife, who 
 was now smiling through her tears, said she was will- 
 ing, but she did not want to lose him just yet. " And 
 do you think," said Billy, " that you will ever be willing. 
 If my 'Joey' lives, and if I am to wait until she is 
 willing for me to go to heaven, I shall never get 
 there. The fact is, the Lord has a right to take your 
 husband, or me, or any of His children whenever He 
 pleases, and if I were the Lord I would too, and not ask 
 anybody r 
 
 I well remember having a visit from Billy when, to 
 all appearances, I was on the borders of the grave, and 
 too weak to join in conversation, or to hear other persons 
 talk much. But Billy intermingled, in a very striking 
 manner, prayer and conversation, addressing earnest ex 
 hortations to me, with passionate entreaties to Jehovah. 
 He hoped, he believed, he felt sure that the Lord would 
 raise me up ; then I was exhorted to be faithful, to make 
 full proof of my ministry, to bear a good testimony for 
 Christ always ; and then he burst out into a glowing 
 description of the honours and dignities which in that 
 case should be my reward, — I was to have a robe, a 
 palm, a throne, a kingdom, a crown, a crown of glory, a 
 crown of Hfe, a crown of righteousness, — and he inter- 
 posed the remark — I hardly knew whether it was in 
 tended for God or myself, but it nearly convulsed me 
 with laughter — ^^ And I'll wage it will be a fine and prett} 
 
68 THE king's son. 
 
 There is no doubt about the brightness of Billy's crown, 
 or the fulness of his reward, for in various ways he turned 
 " many to righteousness/' and he shall therefore shine 
 forth " like the sun in the kingdom of our Father," or as 
 the " stars for ever and ever," 
 
 How just and beautiful are the following remaiks 
 respecting Billy's piety, with which we may fitly close 
 this chapter : — " Religion to him was not a duty to be 
 done — not a privilege to be enjoyed in leisure hours — not 
 a benefit-club, a comfortable provision for ' rainy days ;' 
 — it was a life. Never left behind, never put off with 
 the Sunday clothes, never hidden before great or low, 
 good or bad — but in him, flowing through him, speaking 
 in every word, felt in every action, seen in every look — 
 deep, true, abiding religion was with him altogether a 
 life. Dead indeed unto sin, he was now living unto God 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Billy had ' lighted his candle,' and resolved that it 
 should give light to all that were in the house. His 
 religion was not a safety -lamp ^ laid by till he should be 
 going down into the dark valley — nor like the chapel 
 gaslight, that burned only on Sundays and at the week- 
 evening services. Once lighted, it was put into perhaps 
 a commonplace sort of a candlestick, but all at home 
 could see by it. And as the world about him was * a 
 dark world,' he thrust his candle into a lantern and took 
 it forth wherever he went, and guided not a few from 
 * horrible pits ' that threatened them into the way of sal- 
 vation. One thing about this lighted candle Billy neve? 
 forgot — that it burned noiie the worse for every candU 
 that was lighted from if.^ 
 
SABBATH KEEP INC. 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SABBATH KEEPING. 
 
 ** If tkou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure 
 on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, 
 honourable ; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding 
 thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight 
 thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of 
 the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father ; for the 
 mouth of the Lord has spoken it." — Isa. Iviii. 13, 14. 
 
 ONE of the most marked features of Billy's character 
 was his love and reverence for the Sabbath. It 
 was to him a day " most calm, most bright," the 
 " pearl of days" in his estimation, to both rich and poor, 
 to the poor especially. If the working men of England 
 only prize the Sabbath as they should, for it comes to them 
 freighted with health, and blessing, and comfort, they 
 will never permit it to be wrested from their grasp under 
 any pretence whatever. An attempt made soon after 
 his conversion to rob Billy of this boon signally failed. 
 He showed on that occasion great wisdom and boldness. 
 Before his conversion he had spent his Sabbaths in idle- 
 ness and sin, afterwards they were sanctified unto the 
 Lord. 
 
 One of the levels of the mine in which he worked 
 filled with water every twelve hours, which was then 
 drawn to the surface. When it came to Billy's turn one 
 Sunday to go to the mine to draw up the water, he was 
 at Hicks Mill Chapel. The Lord said to him, " Stay 
 here, and worship me this day." Billy had no doubt 
 thai the Lord did thus speak, or that it was his duty to 
 
7© THE KING S SON. 
 
 obey. " 1 will, Lord," was his answer, and he left the 
 water to find its way to the bottom of the shaft, in the 
 full belief that no harm would come of it. On the 
 Monday morning he went to the mine at six o'clock, for 
 he could not safely leave the water to take care of itself 
 on the Monday, though he could do so with great con- 
 fidence on the Sunday. The " captain " interrogated 
 him as to his absence, and Billy frankly told him " it 
 was the Lord's will that he should not work on Sundays." 
 '* I '11 Lord's will thee ! " the " captain " angrily said ; 
 " thou shalt not work here any more." Billy was un- 
 moved, '' for 1 felt," he said, " that I had the Lord of 
 rocks and hills for my Friend, and I did not care who 
 was against me." But when his comrade told him 
 that he was turned away too, he quickly said, " You 
 must not be turned away on my account ; it was not 
 your fault, and I '11 go to the * captain ' and tell him so." 
 A.t this interview, the " captain " told Billy he must give 
 up that foolish notion about not working on Sundays, 
 for men in a mine must work Sundays. Billy replied, 
 " For the wickedness of the wicked the land mourneth ; 
 and I have a new Master now, and He tells me I must 
 not work on the Sabbath-day, but keep it holy ; and I 
 shall do as He tells me." The clerk in the counting- 
 house said, if he felt like William Bray, he wouldn't 
 work on Sundays either. The " captain '' then said he 
 might go to work if he would, and Billy's full cup ran 
 over when he gave him such work to do as left him at 
 liberty to go to the meetings every night of the week as 
 well as Sundays. 
 
 About the same time a revival began at Twelveheads 
 Chapel, and believing it was the Lord's will he left his 
 barrow and the ash-heap (the new work to which he had 
 oeen appointed), and away to the chapel. " I was much 
 wanted," he tells us, ** for the old professors were ver}' 
 
A HOLE IN SATAN S KINGDOM. 7 1 
 
 dead at that time, would come into the chapel with their 
 hats under their arm, and look very black at us. But 
 the Lord was with us, and soon tore a hole in Satan's 
 kingdom. We had, I think, nearly a hundred converted 
 in one week, the first week I ever worked all the time for 
 the Lord in His house." On the Friday of that blessed 
 week, it was " taking-on " day at the mine. He thought 
 at first he would go, but his second thought was, " No, 
 I wull stay here this week, and work for the Lord." 
 " That same night," his account continues, " two men 
 came to the chapel to me, called me out, and said I was 
 appointed to work with them in ' chapel's shaft,' for 
 Captain Hosken, who a little before had turned me away, 
 had told them to take me with them. So I stayed that 
 week and worked for the Lord ; and on Monday morning 
 I went to see the place that the Lord had got for me. 
 At the place I had been turned away from I got only 
 £2 a month ; and in this new place I had ^5 a month 
 or more ; * and had not to work so hard by a great deal. 
 And so the Lord cleared my way for ever from working 
 Sundays. I did not lose by serving the Lord, but got 
 £3 a month more than I got before ; and did tlie will 
 of the Lord, which is better than all the money in the 
 world." And whatever ridicule may be poured upon his 
 statements that he heard the voice of God forbidding 
 him to do this, and directing hi\0 to do that, or upon his 
 belief that God would not suffer any harm to be done by 
 
 * I am not quite sure, as the diffwent accounts furnished by Billy's friends 
 are not quite clear and consistent, but it is probable that his being put to 
 work in this particular spot was intended as a punishment, perhaps his 
 "captain" had not quite overcome his chagrin at Billy's refusal to work 
 on a Sunday. He and his comrades could not make much progress, a great 
 part of their time being employed in drawing off the water. In the ear o< 
 the Most High he poured his complaints. Almost immediately on resuming 
 his work they heard a sort of gurgling with tne water be'ow, and in a little 
 time they had a dry place to work in, and the result was in every resped 
 v.tistacturv 
 
J 2 THE KING'S SON 
 
 the water on the Sunday, surely all must admire his 
 fidelity to his conscience and his God, and his courage 
 in acting up to his convictions of truth and duty, what- 
 ever the result might be to himself. And, after all, what 
 are the incidents just related but illustrations of the 
 Scripture, " Them that honour me, I will honour." And 
 if men only simply and honestly believed what God has 
 promised, such examples would be of daily occunence, 
 for " none ever trusted in Him, and was confounded." 
 
 Much more of the same kind might be added. In the 
 freshness of his first love, Billy had asked on a Sunday 
 morning, " What can I do to be more acceptable in the 
 sight of the Lord than I have already done ? " The 
 answer he received was, '■^ Fast this day for tJie Lord^s 
 sake" " I ivill^ Lord," was his prompt answer. He 
 did not take any food until eight o'clock at night ; and 
 that was the best day he had had for twenty-nine years. 
 Henceforth he took no food from Saturday night until four 
 or five o'clock on Sunday afternoons. His neighbours 
 were afraid that he would starve himself, and a good man, 
 Richard Verran by name, kindly said to him, " The 
 devil is trying to starve thee, for he knows what great 
 things the Lord has done for thee." Billy's answer was. 
 " Richard, the devil shall not starve me, for I can soon 
 know by asking the Lord, who will tell me whether I am 
 right or no." On the next Sunday morning he knelt on 
 a stool and said, " Lord, Thou knowest what the people 
 are saying, that I shall starve myself if I fast ; now, my 
 dear Lord, if I must not fast make me happier than I 
 have been." But he did not feel happier. Then he 
 said, " Lord, must I fast "i " and he says, " The power of 
 God came down upon me, so that I fell off the stool ; 
 and I was convinced that it was the will of the Lord 
 that I should fast." What the people said had no effect 
 upon him now; and truly, as he declares, " If the mem- 
 
STRONG AS A LION. 73 
 
 Lers of the churches would mortify the flesh more, and 
 not gratify it, they would be much happier than they 
 are." To his friends who pressed him to eat he would 
 say, " On the Sunday I get my breakfast and dinner from 
 the King's table, two good meals too, and I would not 
 exchange this food from heaven for the richest dinner on 
 the earth." However long might be the journey he had 
 to take, he never altered his practice. And on the 
 Sunday, incessantly occupied as he was, singing, praying, 
 exhorting, in addition to his bodily exertions, for he 
 would be jumping and dancing almost every moment 
 when not otherwise engaged, he never seemed to want 
 food, and I never saw him appear either dull or fatigued. 
 To him the promise seemed literally fulfilled — " They 
 that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they 
 shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall ru7t 
 and not be weary ; and they shall walk and not faint!''' 
 After rather a long journey one Sabbath to his appoint- 
 ments, when he was got an old man, a good friend on 
 his return said to him, " Poor old man, come, are you .'* " 
 Billy leaped on the floor, and said, " Don't call me an 
 old man, for I am like a boy. I could go the same 
 journey again, for I 'm not one bit weary." At another 
 time, after a very hard day's work he said to a friend, 
 " How strong I am ! I am as strong as a lion. I 
 could run up to St Austell (a distance of twenty miles or 
 so), I am so strong." 
 
 After he started one Sabbath morning to take hii 
 appointments at Mevagissey, he was then living at 
 Tywardreath Highway, he felt very unwell, but to the 
 suggestion, of the enemy as he supposed, that he had 
 better return, he said, " No, I won't. The dear Lord 
 can help me, and 1 shall go." The pain soon ceased, 
 and if there was any remaining weakness, when he de- 
 scended from the pulpit, after the morning service, he 
 
74 THE KIiVC S SON. 
 
 shouted and jumped it all away. Mr Wesley's sure 
 remedy for cold and hoarseness, was, we believe, more 
 preaching. A happy meeting seemed to be all that Billy 
 Bray required for either body or soul. On the occasion 
 referred to above, he said, ** This is the way to make old 
 people young again. If you will get into the Lord's 
 mill, He will grind you down, and make you come out 
 like new ones." Then, instead of going to dinner, he 
 went to visit the sick, it being his meat and drink to do 
 his heavenly Father's will. 
 
 There was, too, a beautiful harmony about Billy's 
 Christian character and consistency. He who will not 
 " rob God " will not defraud his fellow-men ; respect fol 
 the fourth commandment is a guarantee that the eighth 
 and every other will be scrupulously obse- v'ed. I am told 
 it is the habit with dishonest miners when they have a 
 good " take " to hide away, when they have the opportunity, 
 some of the ore, so that they may not appear to have been 
 getting too high wages the next " setting-day," and the 
 hidden treasure is reserved and brought out when they are 
 working in a place where the ore is less plentiful and a 
 larger proportion belongs to the " tributer." Against this 
 practice Billy set his face like a flint. " These men could 
 not enjoy religion," he said, " and act the rogue too. 
 What peace of mind could they have when they came to 
 die." Against all deception, fraud, and oppression, he faith- 
 fully witnessed, whoever might be the offender, or whatever 
 his rank and position. He sometimes brought upon 
 himself much opposition and reproach for the time, though 
 he carefully watched his temper, that he might not rebuke 
 his brother in a wrong spirit, and for a suitable oppor- 
 tunity, that it might neither be in vain, nor wound the 
 offender unnecessarily. Some of these parties were high- 
 sounding professors ; but he well knew if a goad conscience 
 
PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 75 
 
 be not maintained, of faith itself persons will soon make 
 shipwreck. 
 
 A friend of the wTiter's, naturally of a rather gloomy 
 turn, had much peace and joy during a long illness that 
 ended in death. Speaking to his widow as to the cause 
 of this, which seemed in one of his temperament somewhat 
 remarkable, she said that her husband gratefully noticed 
 the fact, and next to the hope of salvation which he had 
 through Jesus Christ, he thought that it was because he 
 had never once knowingly cheated any one of a lump oj 
 coal, his business being that of a coal-merchant. This 
 practical Christianity is the want of the world. 
 
THE KING S SOU 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TRIALS AND CONFLICTS. 
 
 •' 1 will put euniity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed 
 ind her seed ; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heeL" 
 *-Gen. iii. 15. 
 
 " Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he is tried, he 
 shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that 
 love Him.' — James i. 12. 
 
 * nPHE devil knows where I live," was a common 
 J- saying of Billy's, in answer to remarks of persons 
 that he knew but little or nothing of trial and 
 temptation. He was tempted, so he said, to do many bad 
 things, to swear, to tell lies, &c., and sometimes to end his 
 life by throwing himself down the "shaft" of a mine. But 
 he told the tempter, '■'■yjidsjmitty-face" to do this himself, 
 and see how he would like it, and not, as too many do, 
 meet Satan more than half-way, go to him, and say, 
 " Hae na ye some dainty temptation for me to-day now, 
 Daddie Satan "i I 'm sair wracked for a coaxing tempta- 
 tion ; " but Satan he always resisted, " steadfast in the 
 faith." Nor was he in the habit of seeking sympathy 
 from others ; but "took joyfully" ever)^thing as it cami 
 along from the hand of a loving Father. And more than 
 all, perhaps, he thought " it not strange concerning the 
 fiery trials" which were permitted to come upon him, 
 " as though some strange thing had happened unto him." 
 If temptation were a stratige thing, it would be still 
 more strange that Jesus himself "suffered bemg tempted," 
 
fVHV SHOULD I FEAR THE DEVIL ( f] 
 
 that He might be "able to succour them that are tempted." 
 It is marvellous that this power to succour Jesus acquired 
 in the actual conflicts of life. 
 
 Mr Gilbert says he has heard that in coming home 
 from the mine on one occasion, soon after his conversion, 
 Billy was thinking of several recent accidents, which had 
 proved fatal to some of his acquaintances. On getting 
 near a " shaft " where one or two persons had been killed, 
 Billy's mind became possessed with the thought (he was 
 not altogether free from the superstitions which still linger 
 among persons of his class) that they would appear to 
 him from the invisible world. His fears were greatly 
 excited, and though, like many other troubles, quite ima- 
 ginary, they were none the less terrible to endure. But 
 he passed the place in safety, and of course saw nothing. 
 On coming near another " shaft," he thought of one or twc 
 persons who had been killed there, ana he trembled with 
 the thought that he should see them. But he kept on 
 his way, struggling with his emotions as best he could. 
 In passing this second " shaft," he had to cross a bridge. 
 Just as he was about to step on it, it came into his mind 
 that the "devil himself" would meet him on the bridge. 
 This thought thoroughly aroused him, and he exclaimed, 
 " The devil ! who is he 1 what can he do 1 The devil 
 is a fallen angel ! he was turned out of heaven by God I 
 — he is held now in chains ! I am Billy Bray ! God is 
 my heavenly Father ! Why should I fear the devil ? " 
 Then strong in the consciousness that God was his 
 defence, he said, as if addressing a visible foe, " Come 
 on, then, thou devil ; I fear thee not ! Come on, Lucifer, 
 and all demons ! Come on, old ones and young ones, black 
 ones and blue ones, fiery and red-hot ones ; come on, 
 devil, and all thy ugly hosts ! " Then, feeling himself 
 delivered from the fears that had distressed and darkened 
 his mind, he began to sing — 
 
 7^ 
 
78 THE KING^S SON. 
 
 '* Josus, the name high over aL. 
 In hell, or earth, or sky : 
 Angels and men before it fall, 
 And devils fear and fly ; " 
 
 when he was discovered by some of his neighbours leap- 
 ing and dancing, and praising the Lord who had again 
 given him the victory ! 
 
 Not many readers will be able, we suppose, to 
 sympathise with this experience of Billy ; but he had 
 trials of another kind which come home very closely to 
 the understandings and hearts of many. The Lord was 
 his Shepherd, and so he never came to want. The pro- 
 mise is, " Bread shall be given," and " water is sure ; '' 
 but the Lord's people are often brought into great straits. 
 Many an honest Christian man has found it hard work at 
 times to provide for the daily wants of himself and family. 
 Satan is busy in plying the temptation then that the 
 Lord has forgotten him, and is utterly regardless of his 
 wants. Scanty fare, an empty cupboard, an ill-furnished 
 table, thread-bare clothing, — are these the evidences and 
 proofs of God's favour .? And then many careless, god- 
 less persons have more than heart can wish. God thus 
 I tries the faith of His children, and He delights to honour 
 ^^ it. Billy Bray was often thus tried, but God worked out 
 his deliverance. He could wait^ or work, or suffer, even 
 / die, but he could not si7i, nor doubt his best Friend. 
 He came home one " pay-day " from the mine without 
 any money. It was a great trial to him, but he bore it 
 meekly. His wife reproached him with being the 
 cause of their poverty and trials, but he said to her, 
 
 I" The Lord will provide," and just then a person, 
 who had heard of his circumstances, came mto the 
 house with a basket of provisions containing all that he 
 and his needed. He might well sing, as we are told 
 be did:-- 
 
"7*^^ LORD WILL PROVIDE^ 79 
 
 " Not fearing or doubting, 
 With Christ on my side, 
 I hope to die shouting, 
 The Lord will provide." 
 
 When he took some of the money that he had so hardly- 
 earned, to pay for something wanted for the chapels 
 which he did so much to build, his wife declared, " We 
 shall be brought to the Union if you go on in this way." 
 " Never mind, my dear Joey, the Lord will provide ; " 
 and so He did always, often marvellously. Here is one 
 incident from his own hps. 
 
 " At one time I had been at work the whole of the 
 month, but had no wages to take up when pay-day came ; 
 and as we had no bread in the house, '■ Joey ' advised 
 me to go up and ask the * captain ' to lend me a few 
 shillings, which I did, and he let me have ten shillings 
 On my way home I called to see a family, and found they 
 were worse off than myself; for though we had no bread, 
 we had bacon and potatoes, but they had neither. So 
 I gave them five shillings, and went towards home. 
 Then I called on another family, and found them, if 
 possible, in greater distress than the former. I thought 
 I could not give them less than I had given the others ; 
 so I gave them the other five shillings, and went home. 
 And Joey said — 
 
 " ' Well, William, have you seen the captain t ' 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 " * Did you ask him for any money ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes ; he let me have ten shillings.' 
 
 " ' Where is it ? ' 
 
 " * I have given it away.' 
 
 " * I never saw the fellow to you in my life. You are 
 enough to try any one.' 
 
 '* * The Lord isn't going to stay in m y debt very lon^.' // 
 and I then weal out. For two or three days after this, Joey |l 
 
8o THE KING S SON. 
 
 was mighty down ; but about the middle of the week, 
 when I came home from the mine, Joey was looking 
 mighty smiling, so I thought there. was something up. 
 Presently Joey said — 
 
 " ' Mrs So-and-so has been here to-day.' 
 
 « ' Oh ! ' 
 
 " ' And she gave me a sovereign.' 
 
 " ' There, I told you the Lord wasn't going to stay in 
 my debt very long ; there 's the ten shillings, and ten 
 shillings interest.' " 
 
 Coming home one Sunday evening from his appoint- 
 ment through a dirty road, Billy stuck in the mud, and 
 in extricating one foot, he tore off the sole of his shoe. 
 Holding it up, now almost useless, he said, " Here, 
 Father, thou knowest that I have worn out these shoes 
 in Thy cause, and I have no money to buy new ones ; 
 help me." The Lord heard him in this time of need, 
 and sent speedy relief. A friend the next week said he 
 wanted Billy to accompany him to Truro ; and on theit 
 arrival he took him first to a shoe shop, and bought for 
 him a pair of shoes, and then to other shops to get some 
 needed articles of clothing. 
 
 Billy was very poor when he was converted (a working 
 man who is a drunkard must be very poor); a low-priced 
 fustian jacket was his best, and he said that was better 
 than he deserved ; but false shame did not stop him 
 from going out on the Sunday to warn his fellow-men to 
 " flee from the wrath to come." At the request of a 
 servant girl, an unknown Quaker friend gave him a coat 
 and waistcoat, " which suited me,'' he said, '' as if they 
 were made for me ; and they served me for years.'' This 
 reminds me of one of his facetious remarks on a similar 
 occasion. A good friend said to him, " The Lord has 
 told me to give you a coat and waistcoat, but I do not 
 know whether they will fit vou." " If the Lord told you 
 
NEITHER FOOD NOR LODGINGS. 8l 
 
 to give them to me, they will fit me all right, for He 
 knows my size exactly.^' It is right to state it was 
 Billy's opinion that almost all the garments which he 
 had given to him fitted him so well because " he and 
 fashion had once quarrelled," and the breach had never 
 been made up. 
 
 Billy's deep poverty was shared by many of his 
 fellow- Christians, preachers and others, and his kind 
 Quaker friends showed also no little kindness to them 
 When the Bible Christian missionaries went out first, 
 their salary was very small, and sometimes they had to 
 get meat and clothes where they could. '* The love of 
 Christ constrained them," and many of them cheerfully 
 endured hardness for His sake. Billy relates this cir- 
 cumstance : — 
 
 "One of our preachers was called to preach to a very 
 wicked people, and the Lord made him a great blessing 
 to them. He has told me that, after he has done 
 preaching at night, he has had no place to lodge and 
 nothing to eat. He said that he had slept out in a cold, 
 frosty night, and when he awoke in the morning he 
 found it very hard work to get any heat in himself. The 
 devil tempted him that his case was a bad one, for he 
 had neither food nor lodgings, and his clothes were very 
 poor. He had no friends ; and all the people that were 
 pious met in other societies. A member of another 
 society said to him one day, * You are fine fellows for 
 beating the bushes, but we get the birds.' The missionary 
 then said to him, ' The Day of Judgment is coming, 
 and then every bird-cage door will be thrown open, and 
 every bird will fly to its own cage ; and then those will 
 look foolish enough who have got only empty cages in 
 their hand.' This good man suffered hunger and thirst 
 and poverty to do the Lord's will ; and the devil was 
 very busy in showing lam that the Lord was a hard 
 
 F 
 
82 THE king's son. 
 
 Master, and so tried to put him out of the way. But he 
 could not, for the dear brother was Hke St Paul, and 
 could say, * None of these things move me.' When his 
 clothes got pool, the devil would say, ' See how the Lord 
 is serving thee, for thy clothes is just done, and what 
 wilt thou do then.' But he trusted in the Lord, and the 
 Lord opened the heart of a Quaker friend, who asked 
 him one day, ' Is that all the clothes thou hast got 1 ' 
 And he said ' Yes.' Then the friend said, ' Come to my 
 house, and I will give thee some clothes.' The Lord 
 also opened the heart of another friend, who sent him 
 some money. Then the missionary said, ' Now, devil, 
 / will chase thee all over this mission on penny loaves 
 and water J So you see that this man loved souls ; and 
 he was made a great blessing in the neighbourhood, 
 which had been a wretched one. And the dear Lord 
 u'ill reward the friends who helped him, for He has said, 
 " Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of 
 these my httle ones, ye have done it unto me.' " 
 
 It was Billy's belief that the Lord " opened " the 
 hearts of his friends to help him whenever he needed 
 it, and " shut " them up when help was no longer re- 
 quired. 
 
 Billy had other trials in his family besides those of 
 which we have spoken. He had two sisters, and one of 
 them, who was out of her mind, was very trying. She 
 was sometimes so cross, that she exercised Billy's faith 
 and patience more than a little. But he had one un- 
 failing resort in trouble. " I cried to the Lord, and He 
 heard me, for He made me so happy that I could not 
 hold it in ; I had a joy unspeakable and full of glory ; I 
 had good measure, pressed down, and running over. 
 Now what was that trial compared with the blessing 1 
 received? I was so happy that I felt none of these 
 thmgs could move me. I could say, ' I long to be with 
 
*^ THERE *S NO GREASE IN ME." 83 
 
 Christ now. My dear Lord, let me die, and take me to 
 heaven.' I felt so much of the Divine glory that I 
 longed to be there. I cannot tell what I felt." Did he 
 not know what the Saviour meant when He said, "In 
 the world ye shall have tribulation ; dui be of good cheer ^ 
 I have overcome the world." 
 
 And yet one other kind of trial we must mention. 
 During his wife's long illness, which ended in death, he 
 " had many blessed seasons while praying with her, and 
 promises from the dear Lord." At one time the words 
 were so deeply impressed on his mind, " She is mine for 
 ever," that tears came into his eyes. At another time 
 he was greatly comforted by the conviction, inwrought 
 into his heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, that he 
 himself, his wife and family, should be saved. Therefore 
 he said, " I had no reason to doubt of my wife's going 
 to heaven ; nevertheless the devil often tempted me that, 
 because I was not home with her when she died, it was 
 not well with her. But the devil could not make me 
 believe it. Since the dear Lord has settled the matter, 
 the old king of the blacks does not tempt me that she is 
 not in heaven. When the dear Lord speaks to His 
 children's hearts, He speaks the truth ; He is a God of 
 truth, and all who love Him are children of the truth." 
 Thus in all these things was Billy more than a conqueror 
 through Him that loved him. 
 
 We may give two or three incidents, as they show not 
 only the eccentricity, but also the force of his genius. He 
 thus repelled the tempter, when he said to him, " I '11 have 
 thee down to hell after all." " Hast thee got a little ' lew ' 
 place for me in hell where I could sing thee a song.? 
 Thee cus ^n^t burn me devil. There 'j no grease in me ; " 
 or, " What an ould (old) fool thee art now ; I have been 
 battling with thee for twenty-eight years,* and I have 
 
 * This Wits spoken »t the opeuuig of Penhalluw Chauel, Truro Circui* 
 
84 THE KIN(fS SOI^. 
 
 always beat thee, and I always shall." But the devil said 
 again, " Well, I'll have thee down to hell after all." But 
 Billy said to him, " I'd as soon go to hell with thee as 
 not. For I'd bring Jesus Christ with me, and shout and 
 sing, and praise thfc Lord, for that's a sound thee hasn't 
 heard for two seven years, and I know thee wost-en 
 (would not) like that." * If the temptation was that he 
 was a fool to go and preach, as he would never get any- 
 thing for it, the answer was, "Not so big a fool as thee 
 art, for once thee was in a good situation, and did not 
 know how to keep it." 
 
 His own graphic account f of how he " beat the devil" 
 when his crop of potatoes failed, is so good, that we grate- 
 fully insert it here : — 
 
 " Friends, last week I was a-diggin' up my 'taturs. 
 It was a wisht poor yield, sure 'nough ; there was hardly 
 a sound one in the whole lot. An' while I was a-diggin' 
 the devil come to me, and he says, ' Billy, do you think 
 your Father do love you.?' * I should reckon He do,' I 
 says. ' Well, I don't,' says the ould tempter in a minute. 
 If I'd thought about it I shouldn't ha' Hstened to 'en, for 
 his 'pinions ben't worth the leastest bit o' notice. * I 
 don't,' says he, ' and I tell 'ee what for : if your Fathe 
 loved you, Billy Bray, He'd give you a pretty yield o' 
 'taturs ; so much as ever you do want, and ever so many 
 of 'em, and every one of 'em as big as your fist. For it 
 ben't no trouble to your Father to do anything ; and He 
 could just as easy give you plenty as not, an' if He 
 loved you, He would, too.' Of course, I wasn't goin' to 
 
 * Billy's daring faith reminds us of the old Scottish believer of whom Dr 
 Brown speaks in his Horn Subseciva. To her pastor, who asked, " Janet, 
 what would you say if, after all He has done for you, God should let you 
 drop into hell? " " E'en's [even as] He likes," answered Janet : " if He does, 
 He'll lose mair than I do." Surely that was the sublimity of faith in Him 
 whose word cannot be broken. 
 
 t From "Daniel Quorm, and his Religious Noiioua." 
 
erOW HE BEAT THE DEVIL. 85 
 
 let he talk o' my Father like that, so I turned round 
 'pon 'en. * Pray, sir/ says I, * who may you happen to 
 be, comin' to me a-talkin' like this here ? If I ben't mis- 
 taken, I know you, sir, and my Father, too. And to 
 think o' you comin' a-sayin' He don't love me ! Why, 
 I've got your written character home to my house ; and 
 it do say, sir, that you be a liar from the begin nin' ! 
 An' I'm sorry to add, that I used to have a personal 
 acquaintance with you some years since, and I served 
 you faithful as ever any poor wretch could : and all you 
 gave me was nothing but rags to my back, and a wretched 
 home, and an achin' head, an' no 'taturs, and the fear o' 
 hell-fire to finish up with. And here's my dear Father 
 in heaven. I have been a poor servant of His, off and 
 on, for thirty years. An' He's given me a clean heart, 
 an' a soul full o' joy, an' a lovely suit o' white as'U never 
 wear out ; and He says that He'll make a king o' me 
 Defore He've done, an' that He'll take me home to His 
 palace to reign with Him for ever and ever. An' now 
 you come up here a-talkin' like that.' Bless 'e, my dear 
 friends, he went off in a minute, like as if he'd been shol 
 — / do wish he had- — and he never had the manners to 
 say Good mormn\" Godliness is profitable unto all 
 things, having the promise of the life which now is, 
 as well as that which is to come ; but all true Christians 
 love God for what He is, and not for profit or reward ; 
 and they love holiness, not only because it is happiness, 
 but because it is His image who is to them " the fairest 
 among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." It is a 
 miserable, shallow philosophy to suppose that the Lord 
 rewards those who are poor in spirit, and pure in heart, 
 and patient under suffering, with mere earthly good, or 
 that their trust, and love, and devotion, and service, cai? 
 be alienated by any sorrows and evils He permits U- 
 come upon them. 
 
86 ffOW TO SERVE THE DEVIL. 
 
 In resisting temptation, Billy knew the special value 
 of the shield of faith^ without which any Christian's 
 armour is incomplete. On one occasion, in his capacity 
 as capt; da-dresser, he engaged to dress a quantity of ore, 
 and had to employ a number of young persons. But the 
 general opinion was, that the lot was all but worthless, 
 and for a time it was a great trial to Billy as there would 
 be nothing for him, and worse still, nothing for those 
 under him. " Why, the people will say, there 's that ould 
 (old) Billy Bray, an ould Bryanite, an ould rogue, he hath 
 cheated the boys and maidens of their wages. A pretty 
 Christian he ! " But Billy wrestled and laboured in 
 prayer, until he got the assurance that the Lord was on 
 ills way. (Dan. x. 9.) "I will bring thee through," the 
 Lord said to him one day while he was praying ; to which 
 gracious word he at once answered, *' I believe it, Lord, 
 I know Thee wost( Thou wilt); praise the Lord, amen, glory. 
 I don't care now what the devil says. If Thou tell me. 
 that Thou wilt bring me through, I beheve Thou wilt." 
 And his foot once placed upon the rock, he was not to be 
 moved. The struggle was again and again renewed, but 
 to all suggestions, from whatever quarter they came, his 
 answer was, " I don't care whether the stuff is worth any- 
 thing or not. The Lord hath told me He will bring me 
 through, and I believe Him." And did the Lord dis- 
 appoint His servant ? or leave "him at last in trouble to 
 sink .? " No, no ! On the " sampling " day the " stuff " was 
 found to be more valuable than any person expected, en- 
 abling Billy to pay the boys and girls their wages, his own, 
 and then have £,^ left for himself. 
 
 His own experience taught him the only method, and 
 his occupation as a miner the particular illustration, by 
 which he could inspire his fellow- Christians with stead- 
 fastness and courage in the midst of trials. "The best 
 way to serve the devil," he would say, " is to win'en 
 
THE king's son. 87 
 
 (wind him) up at the capstan. Throw the rope round 
 'en," he continued, " and turn away until you get 'en up 
 close to the axle, and when he cries * strick' (strike), you 
 must 'en let go at all, but hold 'en fast. If you get 'en 
 up tight to the axle, and keep 'en there, he '11 never be 
 able to harm 'e (hurt you) : all he will be able to do, will 
 be to grizzle at 'e (snarl at you)." It was evident that 
 Billy had got the arch-foe tight at the capstan. 
 
 Who can read this account of Billy's temptations 
 without being reminded of Jehovah's declaration to the 
 serpent, ** I will put enmity between thee and the woman, 
 and between thy seed and her seed ; " and the remainder 
 of that storm of wrath which the devil poured on the 
 head of our blessed Redeemer, he has reserved for His 
 followers, but with the same result in many cases, thank 
 God, as in the case of Jesus himself. Impotent is 
 Satan's fury if we take the whole armour of God. 
 
 Billy knew, too, how to fight the devil and his agents 
 with their own weapons. Returning late from a revival 
 meeting, on a dark night, in a lonely road, " certain 
 lewd fellows of the baser sort," tried to frighten him by 
 making all sorts of unearthly sounds ; but he went sing- 
 ing on his way. At last one of them said, in the most 
 terrible tones, " But I 'm the devil up here in the hedge, 
 Billy Bray." " Bless the Lord ! bless the Lord ! " said 
 Billy, " / did not know thee ' Tvost' so far away as that^ 
 To use Billy's own expression, " What could the devil do 
 with such as he .? " 
 
 At a friend's house in Truro, the mistress read the 
 account of the temptation of our Lord at family prayer. 
 Billy listened quietly till the verse was read in which ' 
 Satan promises the Saviour all the kingdoms of the 
 world, and the glory of them, if He would only fall down 
 and worship him, when he started to his feet exclaiming, 
 " The ould vagabond ! the ould vagabond ! he give away 
 all the kingdoms of the world when he never had an old 
 tatu*- skin to call his own^ the ould vagabofid ■ "' 
 
88 THR KING'S SOS 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DRINKING AND SMOKING. 
 
 " What ! know ycu not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 
 which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye 
 are bought with a price : therefore glorify God in your body, and in yoti 
 spirit, which are God's." — i Cor. vi. 20. 
 
 ANY life of Billy Bray would be considered by all who 
 knew him as incomplete that did not refer to his 
 strong detestation of the pernicious habits of taking 
 intoxicating drinks, and ot smoking. He bore a life- 
 long and emphatic testimony against these evils. He had 
 been much debased by drunkenness, and a perfect 
 slave to the pipe. " When I heard/' he says, " that Mr 
 Teare was coming to Hicks Mill to lecture on Teetotalism, 
 I thought I would go to hear him, but that I would not 
 sign the pledge ; for a little drop, if a man does not 
 take too much, will do him good. As I listened to what 
 Mr Teare had to say, the darkness was removed from my 
 mind, and I thought I would sign the pledge ; and before 
 Mr Teare had finished speaking I shouted out to friend 
 Tregaskis, ' Thomas, put down my name ! ' " and from 
 that hour he was not only a staunch teetotaler, but also 
 one of the most earnest and successful advocates of the 
 great and holy cause of temperance. That so many 
 persons have been saved from sin and shame by thf? 
 safeguard of teetotalism ought to be a sufficient reason 
 for all good people to render it their support. Billy used 
 to say, so Mr Ashworth tells us, " * If Satan ever catches 
 me, it will be with the ale-pot. Men set lirae-sticks to 
 
frWLL-HOUSES AND HEAVEN-HOUSES, 89 
 
 catch birds, and Satan sets wine-bottles and ale- pots to 
 catch fools, but I will not touch a drop, then I shall 
 never get drunk.' 
 
 " At one temperance meeting, speaking of moderation, 
 he said, * Ye might as well hang an old woman's apron 
 in the gap of a potato field to prevent the old sow with 
 young pigs from going in, as expect a drunkard to be cured 
 with moderation. Satan knows that, so he sets the little 
 pot to catch him again.' " 
 
 He also fully endorsed the opinion which he had heard 
 expressed, that public-houses were hell-houses. He knew 
 one house where nineteen men got drunk, and while in a 
 state of intoxication fell into " shafts," and were killed. 
 " Hell-houses,^' he would say, " indeed they are ! — for they 
 are places where people are prepared for hell, and they 
 help people on their way." But with his love of anti- 
 thesis, and his habitual cheerfulness, even " hell-houses " 
 reminded him of chapels, where people are converted 
 and prepared for heaven, and therefore might properly 
 be called " heaven-houses." 
 
 But the evils of drinking are so generally admitted, that 
 we need not insist on the importance of Temperance, or 
 attempt to describe the benefits that come, with autumn 
 ripeness and bountifulness, on all persons who embrace 
 and advocate its principles. But the case is different 
 with the growing evil oi smoking, and Billy's views thereon 
 we cannot lightly pass over without being unfaithful to his 
 memory. He says — 
 
 " I had been a smoker as well as a drunkard, and I 
 used to love my tobacco as much as I loved my meat, and 
 I would rather go down into the mine without my dinner 
 than without my pipe. In the days of old the Lord spoke 
 by the mouth of His servants the prophets ; now He 
 speaks to us by the Spirit of His Son. I had not only 
 the leeling part of religion, but I could hear the small still 
 
9© THE king's son. 
 
 voice within speaking to me. When I took t^e pipe to 
 smoke, it would be applied within, * It is an idol, a lust, 
 worship the Lord with dean lips.' So I felt it was not 
 right to smoke. The Lord also sent a woman to convince 
 me. I was one day in a house, and I took out my pipe 
 to light it at the fire, and Mary Hawke — for that was the 
 woman's name — said, * Do you not feel it is wrong to 
 smoke } ' I said I felt something inside telling me it is 
 an idol, a lust ; and she said that was the Lord. Then 
 I said, ' Now I must give it up, for the Lord is telling me 
 of it inside, and the woman outside ; so the tobacco must 
 go, love it as I may.' There and then I took the tobacco 
 out of my pocket, and threw it into the fire, and put the 
 pipe under my foot, ' ashes to ashes, dust to dust.' And 
 I have not smoked since. I found it hard to break of! 
 old habits ; but I cried to the Lord for help, and He gave 
 me strength, for He has said, ' Call upon me in the day 
 of trouble, and I will deliver thee.' The day after I gave 
 up smoking I had the toothache so bad I did not know 
 what to do. I thought this was owing to giving up the 
 pipe, but I said I would never smoke again if I lost every 
 tooth in my head. I said, * Lord, Thou hast told us, " My 
 yoke is easy, and my burden is light," ' and when I said 
 that all the pain left me. Sometimes the thought of the 
 pipe would come back to me very strong ; but the Lord 
 strengthened me against the habit ; and, bless His name, 
 I have not smoked since." 
 
 Mr Maynard says that, after Billy had given up 
 smoking, he thought he would chew a little ; but he 
 conquered this dirty habit too. " On one occasion," he 
 says, " when at a prayer-meeting at Hicks Mill, I heard 
 the Lord say to me, * Worship me with clean lips.' So 
 when we got up from our knees, I took the quid (and 
 when speaking of it he would suit the action to the word) 
 out of my mouth, and ' whipp'd en ' (threw it) under the 
 
A WORD TO SMOKERS. Ql 
 
 form. But when we got on our knees again, I put 
 another ' quid ' into my mouth. Then the Lord said to 
 me again, * Worship me with clean lips.' So I took the 
 * quid ' out of my mouth, and ' whipp'd en ' under the 
 form again, and said, * Yes, Lord, I will.* From that 
 time I gave up chewing as well as smoking, and have 
 been a free man." 
 
 Smoking and chewing are expensive and wasteful 
 habits, and this view of the matter is worthy of considera- 
 tion by working-men who find it difficult to live honestly 
 in the world, and especially by Christian working-men 
 who find it still more difficult to render any but the most 
 trifling pecuniary aid to the cause which they have 
 espoused. More than twenty years after Billy had 
 abandoned smoking, he said, " God has just given me 
 enough money to pay my way through life, and nothing 
 for the pipe. If I had spent only sixpence a week or. 
 the pipe I should have been at this time about thirty 
 pounds in debt." A thought surely worthy of the atten- 
 tion of those who indulge in any useless habit at the 
 expense of others and to their own injury. 
 
 It was especially a gratification to Billy if he could 
 persuade young men to imitate his example.* He 
 
 * "After fifty years of most extensive and varied practice in my profes- 
 sion, I have come to the decision that smoking is a main cause of ruining 
 our young men, pauperising the working-men, and rendering comparatively 
 useless the best efforts of ministers of religion." — John Higginbottom, Esq., 
 M.R.C.S. 
 
 "The first cigar that a youn^man puts into his mouth is often his first 
 step in a career of vice." — yohn Angell y antes. 
 
 "Smoking," a clergyman says, "is Satan's seed-basket, with which h« 
 beguiles unwary souls." 
 
 Mr Scott, the Chamberlain of the City of London, remarks, "The 
 apprentices of the City who violate the covenants of their indentures are 
 amenable to my Court ; and my first inquiry invariably is. Does the boy 
 drink ? and as invariably the answer is, No. Does he smoke T and in 
 nearly every instance the reply is, Yes." " Seventeen out of twenty cases 
 of criminal oflFences in Manchester and Sal/ord gaols," says Mr Thomay 
 
92 TME KING*S SON, 
 
 would tell them that the pipe " was no help to them in 
 the way to heaven, but an enemy to body and mind and 
 pocket. When the good Spirit suggests to the mind of a 
 good man to read a chapter in the Bible, the evil spirit 
 which is after the flesh will say, ' I would have a pull at 
 the pipe first ; ' and by the time he has lit his pipe and 
 smoked, something comes along for him to do, and he 
 does not read at all for that time. When it comes into 
 his mind to pray, it is said, ' I would have a pipe first,' 
 and by the time the pipe is done, something comes in 
 his way that calls him off; and there is no praying 
 for that time. The pipe has robbed the Christian of hun- 
 dreds of chapters and prayers^ besides proving injurious 
 in point of health and wealth. 
 
 But persons say, " It is their right, and they will not 
 give it up." But Billy would say they must give up every 
 idol for the Lord's sake, who gave His last drop of blood 
 for them. Once while he was speaking warmly on this 
 subject, a gentleman said he was speaking what was not 
 right. Billy said, " Drink and smoke, is that right } 
 It must be • drink and smoke,' or ' not drink and smoke.' " 
 The gentleman said no more, and an old man said, 
 •' Billy Bray is right, for I smoked forty years, and it 
 did me no good, and I have given it up now." But 
 Billy had to confess afterwards that the same old man 
 says Billy is wrong ; for he had " turned to his idol again, 
 and was a worse smoker than ever." Some who aban- 
 doned the habit soon took it up again, and exposed 
 themselves to Billy's sarcasm, " that a little pipe could 
 beat them." He told a person who said that he was 
 tempted, to " go and tell the Lord about it." The man 
 
 Wright, " are in connection with smoking and drinking — the former gene* 
 rally preceding the latter." 
 
 %• These quotations are taken from "The Fascinator ; or, The Knight's 
 Legacy," a Prize Essay by Mrs Noel-Thatcher, a book which oueht to be 
 extensively circulated. 
 
A preacher's example. 93 
 
 said, " I do not know whether it is the devil who is 
 tempting me or not, for it is continually coming into my 
 mind to give up the pipe." Billy answered, " I do not 
 think that that is the devil. I told him to stop, and not 
 throw away his pipe till we had prayed, and cast lots, 
 and if it came to his lot to throw the pipe away he should. 
 We knelt down, and asked the Lord to show us by the 
 lot what we ought to do ; and as it came for him to give 
 up his pipe, he threw it away for the time. After a day 
 or two he said to me, he thought there was some good 
 in the pipe after all. Then I said to him, * Thee hast 
 cut the head of the beer- quart off, but only chopped the 
 tail of the tobacco-pipe off; thee wilt have it again soon.* 
 And he did, but after a while he gave it up finally." 
 
 Billy was particularly hard upon preachers through 
 whose example many, he believed, of the Lord's people 
 were induced to depart from the right way. He con- 
 sidered no favour should be extended to them. He was 
 hardly at liberty to be charitable in the matter, for it was 
 the Lord's work, and soon all would have to answer for 
 their conduct in the judgment ; some for continuing to 
 smoke, and others for giving it up, and he felt confident 
 as to what the decision of the Great Judge would be. 
 " If the preachers smoke, I may smoke too," was the 
 argument he felt he could not answer, except by bringing 
 a cha?'gg against the preachers, which he was most un- 
 willing to do. " Defile not yourselves with idols," and 
 " Mortify the deeds of the body," were, in Billy's view, 
 such definite commands, that for Christians to smoke 
 seemed to him to be the most glaring inconsist- 
 ency, 
 
 Billy and a preacher of somewhat the same type of 
 
 character were holding a missionary meeting at F . 
 
 Billy opened the meeting with prayer, and the preacher 
 and others fervently responded to many of his petitions. 
 
94 ^H^ king's son. 
 
 Observing this, he began to be more minute and pointed 
 in his requests. " O Lord, help the people to give up 
 their idols." The preacher said, " Amen." " May Thy 
 children be saved from the love of the world's fashions." 
 " Amen," again said the preacher. " Help Thy people 
 to give up their ribbons and feathers." " Amen," was 
 still the response of the preacher ; and again " Amen " 
 when he added, " And their cups and drinks." *' And 
 their pipes and tobacco," but to this there was no 
 " Amen " from the preacher. Billy at once said, 
 
 " Where 's your Amen, Br. B ? Why don't you 
 
 say * Amen ' to the pipes as well as the cups 1 Ah ! 
 you won't say * Amen' to the pipes ! " He then pro- 
 ceeded with his prayer. And what would be irreveren* 
 in most persons, did not appear so in him. But the 
 preacher afterwards remonstrated with Billy on his im- 
 propriety in administering this personal rebuke in public. 
 He justified himself by saying, " You were hearty and 
 loud enough with your * Amens ' for others to give up 
 their idols ; but you are not willing to part with your 
 own. Bless the Lord ! I have given up all for my 
 Saviour." 
 
 At one time the same preacher was preaching when 
 Billy Bray was present ; warming with his subject, he 
 exclaimed, " If my arms were long enough and strong 
 enough, and God would give me permission, I would 
 take you all and fly right away to heaven with you ! " 
 " And I," said Billy Bray, " would be back again in hall 
 an hour for another turn." 
 
 Persons sometimes are laughed out of idle habits, 
 when serious remonstrance and Scriptural appeals are in 
 vain. Billy frequently said, that if God intended man 
 or woman to take snuff, the nose would have been turned 
 upside down ; and that an architect who built a house 
 a-ithout a chimney, so that all the smoke came out ^\ 
 
A POOR ARCHITECT. 05 
 
 the front door, was in his opinion a very poor architect. 
 ** And if the Lord intended men to smoke. He certainlj 
 would have made a little chimney at the back of the 
 head for the smoke to pass through ; but as He has 
 not, I don't think He intended for man to smoke ; for 
 surely the Lard could not be a worse architect than 
 nian." 
 
y5 TH& KING'S SON. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 REBUKE AND EXHORTATION. 
 
 '* If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and tho** 
 that are ready to be slain ; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not ; doth not 
 He that pondereththe heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth 
 not He know it ? and shall not He rtnder to every nian according to his 
 works?" — Prov. xxiv. ii, 12. 
 
 " OILLY," writes a friend, "was so completely ab- 
 -L' sorbed with a desire to do good — so fired with 
 zeal for the honour of his Divine Master — so full 
 of pity towards his fellow-men — so saved from the fear 
 of man which bringeth a snare — and so impressed with 
 an habitual sense of God's presence and favour, that^ 
 without regard to position, or rank, or character, or cir- 
 cumstances, he was ever ready to testify of the reality 
 and blessedness of religion, or to administer such reproof, 
 or counsel, or warning as he deemed necessary. At one 
 time he might be seen in the midst of a group of pleasure- 
 seekers, seeking to impress them with the idea, that real 
 and lasting pleasure was to be had only in religion ; at 
 another time he might be found in the midst of an angry, 
 quarrelsome party, striving to conciliate by kind entreaties 
 and loving arguments, or perhaps on his knees, asking 
 God to be merciful, and soften the hearts of the angry 
 ones, calling them by name ; and anon you might have 
 seen him accosting strangers, whom he met on the roads 
 or in the streets, or hailing certain persons with whose 
 characters and peculiar tendencies he appeared quite 
 familiar, and abruptly, some fastidious persons might say, 
 
ORDAINED OF GOD. 
 
 even rudely, but always cheerfully and lovingly, saying 
 something about Christ and His salvation." 
 
 His wonderful tact and address in speaking to friends 
 and strangers personally, whether it came by nature ot 
 grace, or in part from one and in part from the other, 
 was certainly one of the most marked features of his 
 character. And yet he did not belong to that class of 
 men who have been called " religious chatterers'^ He 
 had '' such an insight into people," he had " such a 
 sense of times and seasons," he had *' such a power of 
 putting the truth in an available form, that men could 
 take it without hesitation, and digest it, as it were." He 
 seemed to be one of those " unordained men that are 
 ordained of God from their birth to be teachers in this 
 way." His heart seemed to take such " hold of persons,'' 
 as led him to ** think about them, and pray for them, 
 and brood over them" with the tenderest, purest affection 
 and sympathy. But his talents were multiplied by the 
 wise and benevolent use he made of them ; and to per- 
 sons who say, " I have not the power he had ; and if I 
 had I should not know how to use it," it may be said, as 
 has been said in a similar case, " But it does not follow 
 you ought not to learn ; for the learning is very essential." 
 The church needs the power to preach to individuals, 
 and to preach, as did her Divine Lord, her best sermons, 
 too, on such occasions. 
 
 " Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which 
 are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; 
 considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." We may 
 best learn what this means by an example. Billy says, 
 " At the time I was building Bethel Chapel, I knew a 
 very good man, but who had a very wicked woman foi 
 his wife. She persecuted him in various ways, sometimes 
 by throwing water in his face. One day she provoked 
 him so much that he svrore. He at once keenly felt thaf 
 
 6 
 
98 THE KING*S SON. 
 
 he had grievously sinned. Very earnestly did he ask the 
 Lord to have mercy on him, Satan busily telling him all 
 the while that it was no use to pray, for no one would 
 believe in him again. When I was working about the 
 chapel the Lord spoke to me and said, * Go up and restore 
 thy brother.' So I threw down the shovel that I was 
 working with, and away I went to his house. When I 
 got there his wife began to curse him, and to tell me what 
 her husband had said. When she had done I told her 
 what the Lord said to the Jews when the woman was taken 
 in adultery, ' He that is without sin among you, let him 
 first cast a stone at her.' I asked the husband to walk 
 out with me. I then said, ' Is not the devil telling you that 
 it is no use to pray, and that nobody will believe in you any 
 more?' 'Yes,' he said. Then I told him that the dear Lord 
 had sent me to him, and that He was on his side, and that 
 I was on his side, and while I was talking to him the dear 
 Lord sent another brother to encourage him. And on the 
 following Sunday the darkness was all dispersed- he re- 
 gained the blessing he had lost, lived and died trusting io 
 the Saviour, while his wife, continuing to harden her heart, 
 and make the path of her husband rough and difficult, 
 was soon removed by death, to answer, at the judgment- 
 seat of Christ, for all that she had done." 
 
 "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves ; 
 if God peradventure will give them repentance to the 
 acknowledging of the truth ; and that they may recover 
 themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken 
 captive by him at his will." Billy had learnt the meaning 
 of this Scripture also. When he was out one Sunday 
 beating up recruits for the evening service, he met with a 
 man " who used to say that though Jesus was a good 
 man, He had not all power, and that there was no such 
 being as the devil ; there was, he said, no other devil than 
 the wickedness that was in man. He was a scholar, and 
 
AN Errs MY IVON. 
 
 99 
 
 thought to bs a very wise man. On«?. day when he 
 was arguing that there was no devil, and that all a man 
 had to mind was his own wicked heart, I asked hifn what 
 wickedness it was that went into the swine and drove them 
 over the cliff? He asked me how it was that the Lord 
 suffered the swine to be driven over the cliff? And I 
 said to him, for two reasons, it seems to me. First, to 
 show the power of God ; and then to show the envy oi 
 the devil, who would rather go into the swine than no- 
 where. Then he said, ' You nearly always beat me.' 
 But since we used to argue like that the Lord has made 
 him a new creature," one of the many whom Billy turned 
 to righteousness. 
 
 " When a man's ways please the Lord, He will mak« 
 even his enemies to be at peace with him." Mr Wool- 
 dridge says, " An old gentleman once took great umbrage 
 at Billy's faithful reproofs and lively manner in giving 
 prominence to divine things in everyday life, and at last 
 he became all but inveterate in his hatred to one who 
 strove to acknowledge God in all his ways. But when 
 affliction overtook him, and death and judgment and 
 eternity appeared close at hand, he found that his lamp 
 gave neither light nor warmth. The happy Christian 
 man, the once dreaded enemy, in the same sense as Eli- 
 jah was the enemy of Ahab, was now sent for, to do for 
 the unhappy man what David did for Saul, play upon his 
 harp, so that the evil spirit of melancholy might depart 
 from him. On Billy's entering the sick chamber, looking 
 around on the costly furniture, he spoke aloud, and yet 
 as if he were speaking to himself, ' Did Jesus Christ ever 
 occupy such a fine place as this ? or spend money to 
 gratify fleshly desire and worldly taste ? ' Then, in a 
 strain of tenderness and pity, he began to commiserate 
 Jesus on His deep poverty while sojourning here below. 
 
lOO THB KING^S SOU. 
 
 till the bystanders were annoyed, and the old gentleman 
 flushed with indignation and wrath. But when Billy had, 
 as he thought, probed the wound enough, he applied the 
 healing balm. And while he was praying, a sweet peace 
 stole over the sufferer's mind and greatly comforted his 
 troubled heart. Billy was now asked to stay with the 
 sick man until his departure hence, which was not till 
 two or three weeks afterwards. Billy had some of the 
 sorest conflicts he ever experienced during that time, but 
 in every instance he came off victorious through the blood 
 of the Lamb, was more than a conqueror through Him 
 that loved him. The old gentleman, too, again and again 
 lost his hold of God, but Billy as often rendered the 
 help which the poor man who lay so long at Bethesda's 
 pool so much needed. He kept him whom he had under 
 his care in contact, as it were, with the truth, and the 
 Spirit, and the Saviour, till his mind underwent a com- 
 plete transformation. At last he could no longer doubt 
 that the day of eternal brightness and joy had dawned, 
 for the '■ day-star had arisen in his heart,' The light oi 
 the * city that hath no need of the sun ' shone all around, 
 and without a cloud he passed away to his home in the 
 skies. Billy left the house early one summer's morn, 
 with the last practical proof of the old gentleman's grati- 
 tude in his pocket, when he met an absent son from a 
 distance on his way to see his father. To his inquiry 
 how he was, Billy joyfully answered, * Never so well in 
 all his life, for he is just gone off with the beautiful shining 
 ones ! ' " Shall we be forgiven if we say here that a little 
 boy once said to his mother thai he " reckoned there 
 would be a pretty row in heaven when his father and 
 Billy Bray got there;" and at another time that he thought 
 Billy Bray would never get to heaven, " because he would 
 kick the angels so much while they were carrying him up 
 
BILLY'S BEST FRIEND. lOI 
 
 that they wouldn't carry him any further, but let him fall." 
 While the child's fears may excite a smile, we know that 
 Billy's happy spirit, once released from the burden of the 
 flesh, did, as it were, with one bound, enter into the joy 
 of his Lord. 
 
 In January 1867, Billy went to Plymouth and Devon- 
 port to hold some meetings for the Primitive Methodists, 
 for he was no bigot, and was willing to serve all to the 
 best of his ability, because he loved all them that loved 
 the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. They had blessed 
 meetings, rather noisy too. A man reproved Billy in the 
 street for making so much noise. "He spoke very sharp, 
 and said he did not mind who heard him. He was not 
 ashamed to do his Master's work out in the street, and 
 I am sure we who love the Lord ought not to be ashamed 
 to praise Him in the chapel. I told the man that I did 
 not fear him, nor his black-faced master ; and if I had 
 hearkened to such as he I should have lost my best 
 friend long ago. My best friend is the dear Lord ; He 
 has made me glad, and no one can make me sad ; He 
 makes me shout, and there is no one who can make me 
 doubt ; He it is that makes me dance and leap, and there 
 is no one that can keep down my feet. I sometimes 
 feel so much of the power of God that, I beUeve, ij 
 they were to cut off my feet I should heave up the 
 stumps y 
 
 Billy was emphatically a happy Christian ; he rejoiced 
 in the Lord always. His friend Mr Haslam interro- 
 gated him on one occasion as to the secret of his coti- 
 stant happiness, comparing Billy's experience with his 
 own. He was not always, he said, on the Mount ; his 
 prospects were sometimes clouded; his fears rather than 
 his faith prevailed at times; he therefore wanted to know 
 how it wai that Billy got on so much better than he did 
 
I03 THE KINC^S SON. 
 
 Billy answered that we must become fools for Chiist's 
 sake ; that Christians, like Mr Haslam, who had so 
 much book-larnin\ were placed at a disadvantage, when 
 compared with some others, having so much to unlearn, 
 ^''for some of us, you kitow^' Billy naively added, " are 
 fools to begin with" 
 
 On most occasions, Billy's wit sparkled and flashed 
 without effort apparently on his part ; but he knew how 
 to hold it in reserve when persons sought merely to 
 gratify their curiosity, or wished him to display his 
 powers for their amusement. Some such got more than 
 they bargained for. Thus, to a lady who once " inter- 
 viewed" him for this purpose, he was very silent and 
 reserved. She, hoping to draw him out, said, " You 
 know we must be willing to be fools for Christ's sake." 
 *' Must we, ma'am ?" was his ready answer ; " then there 
 is a pair of us / " 
 
 Reproached one day by a depraved, dissolute man, as 
 being one of those idle fellows who go about living upon 
 others, and doing nothing whatever, he said, " My Father 
 can keep me a gentleman always if He pleases, without 
 my doing any work at all; but your father" — pointing to 
 his shabby tattered garments — " cannot even keep you 
 in decent clothes with all your hard work." " Answer 
 not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like unto 
 him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be 
 wise in his own conceit ;" i.e., " If fools talk nonsense, 
 do not talk nonsense with them ; if fools boast a victory 
 over wisdom, then let wisdom expose their folly." 
 
 When some person, on one occasion, asked Billy how 
 the world was getting on now, he answered, " I don't 
 know, for 1 ha\en't been there for twelve years." 
 
THE DANGER OF WORLDLY CONFORMITY. lO 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FULLY RIPE FOR THE GARNER. 
 
 " Thou shait come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of KX.n^ 
 cometh in in his season." — Job v. 26. 
 
 HAVING nearly filled the space allotted me, I notice 
 in reading what I have written, that the subjects 
 so run into one another, that my purpose to keep 
 them separate and distinct has not been fully accom- 
 plished ; and that I have dealt with the flowers and 
 fruits, rather than with the roots and the principles of 
 the Christian life. 
 
 There are also some points which in my plan had 
 separate chapters assigned to them which have hardly 
 been noticed ; and Billy's evangelistic labours was one, 
 in which he succeeded in first winning the ear^ and then 
 the hearty and thus introducing the gospel into many 
 places ; his view of the sin and danger of worldly con- 
 formity was another, under which head his opposition to 
 holding bazaars to raise money for religious purposes, to 
 choir singing in the public worship of God's house, when 
 the singers are unconverted, and to preachers and mem- 
 bers, especially the former, allowing their beards to grow 
 long, according to the prevaiUng fashion, might very 
 properly have been discussed. Some will regard this 
 last-named particular as an indication of esseniial narrow- 
 ness of mind. But he was ready to make excuses for 
 those persons who, he believed, allowed their beards to 
 grow long for the sake of their health, but he could not 
 tolerate them for one moment if he believed that persons 
 
104 THE king's son. 
 
 did so for pride, or love of show and fashion. Perhaps 
 It was a struggle in all cases for him to overcome his 
 prejudices against long beards ! Let the reader call it a 
 weakness in him, or what he will, it was with him a 
 matter of conscience, and where one is to be found who 
 is scrupulous to a fault in little matters, a hundred may 
 be found who pay no heed to conscience whatever. In 
 the company of many " long-bearded " men he once 
 said, " If I thought you did it for the sake of Christ I 
 should not care, but I am afraid they are too plenty to 
 be good." One of them said, " They came by nature, 
 I suppose." " True," said Billy, " and do you suppose 
 that heaven ever designed everything should remain in 
 its natural state .? Do you prune your fruit-trees, or 
 allow them to grow wild, just as they please ? It is only 
 a foolish man that would use such an argument." 
 
 It might be thought, too, that a man who had so 
 given himself up to the public, must have neglected^ in 
 some measure, his own family and friends ; but he fully 
 believed in the ancient covenant of Jehovah that he 
 would be the God of the righteous, and to their seed after 
 them ; * and gladly obeyed the command of the Saviour : 
 " Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things 
 the Lord hath done for thee, and had compassion on thee." 
 Wife, children, brother, mother, uncle, and other relatives, 
 believed because of his word, and had the great reward of 
 faith in the blessing of a joyful experience, already form- 
 ing quite a large group in the kingdom of eternal glory. 
 
 Billy always enforced the principle that the " best " 
 should be given unto the Lord, and not the " blind," 
 the " lame," or the "sick." At one time at a Missionary 
 meeting he seemed quite vexed because there was some- 
 thing said in the report about money received for " rags 
 and bones." And when he rose to address the meeting, 
 
 * Gen. xvii. 7. 
 
THE BEST FOR THE LORD. IO5 
 
 he said, " I don't think it is right, supporting the Lord's 
 cause with old rags and bones. The Lord deserves the 
 best, and ought to have the best.* However, He is very 
 condescending, for when a person has a little * chick ' 
 that is likely to die, puts it into a stocking, and lays it 
 by tne fire, saying, ' If that *' chick " lives, I will give it 
 to the Missionaries,' it is not long before it says, ' Swee, 
 swee,' let me out, I am better, I knew a woman down 
 at St Just some years ago who had two geese, and though 
 she might have a good flock to begin, she could never 
 rear above two or three. At last she promised the Lord 
 if He would increase her flock she would give every tenth 
 goose to the Missionaries. Now I reckon," he continued, 
 " you will say that that woman was a good heart ; but I 
 don't think so, for if she gave every ffth goose to the 
 Missionaries she would have then more than she had 
 before. However, the Lord took her at her word, and 
 the next year she had eUven, and they all lived till they 
 grew up nearly as big as old ones, and then the Lord 
 tried her faith, one of her geese died. And what do you 
 think the devil said 1 ' That 's the Missionary goose ! ' 
 That 's as the devil would serve the Missionaries ; he 
 would give old, dead, stinking geese to them to eat, but 
 what do they want of an old, dead, stinking goose .'' But 
 she knew ' un,' and she said, ' No, devil, I have ten left 
 now, and the Missionaries shall have one of them.' And 
 the next year she had eleven again. They were out 
 swimming about the pond, with their great long necks and 
 their beautiful white feathers, /^<?Ka/^r^ the most respectable- 
 looking geese I ever saiv." 
 
 As already stated, Billy was a most earnest and success- 
 ful Missionary advocate, though some of his arguments and 
 illustrations at times were not altogether unobjectionable. 
 
 * Mr Sp'jrucon's cornmcui ou ttiis li, *' Well doue, Billy 1 Thu is nghl 
 good, and sound divimty " 
 
I06 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 I well remember on one occasion his strongly urging the 
 people, both the converted and unconverted, to contribute, 
 those who were converted, out of gratitude, and those who 
 were not, because it might give them greater confidence 
 if they should ever seek mercy and forgiveness at the 
 Lord's hands. An old Independent minister, who had 
 kindly lent his chapel for the meeting, sitting by my side, 
 said to me at once, I suppose you would not like to vouch 
 for the soundness of his theology, and before I had time 
 to answer, Billy was in the midst of an illustration of his 
 meaning that set us all in a roar of laughter. He knew 
 a young man once who had been very wicked, and when 
 convinced of his great sinfulness by the Spirit of God, he 
 despaired for a long time of finding mercy. Billy among 
 others tried to comfort him ; but to all they said he only 
 answered, " As I have never done anything for the Lord, 
 / have not, I really have not got the cheek to ask Him tc 
 bestow on me so great a blessing as the forgiveness of my 
 sins." But the thought, later, that he had once givQnfive 
 shillings to help on the Lord's cause, at a time when 
 help was much needed, greatly encouraged him. Billy 
 said his gift " did not make the Lord a bit more willing 
 to save him, but it made him more willing to be saved;" 
 and therefore he believed " the devil kept the thought 
 out of the young man's mind as long as he could." 
 
 It is more important to speak of Lis deep piety, his 
 abiding sense of the Divine favour, the secret of his 
 great usefulness, the source of his constant and perpetual 
 joy. The " much fruit," which is so pleasing to God, 
 cannot come except the roots have struck deep into the 
 soil. Religion is not shallow in its nature. " The water 
 that I shall give you," said the Saviour, " shall be in you 
 a well of water springing up into everlasting life." 
 To be " sanctified wholly," to use an apostolic phrase, 
 Billy very early in his religious history felt to be both his 
 
BLESSED ENJOYMENTS. I07 
 
 duty and privilege. " I remember being," he says, "at 
 Hicks Mill Chapel one Sunday morning at class-meeting 
 when a stranger led the class. The leader asked one 
 of our members whether he could say that the Lord 
 had cleansed him from all sin, and he could not. * That,' 
 I said in my mind, * is sanctificatJon : 1 will have that 
 blessing by the help of the Lord ; ' and I went on my 
 knees at once, and cried to the Lord to sanctify me 
 wholly, body, spirit, soul. And the Lord said to me, 
 * Thou art clean through the word I have spoken unto 
 thee.' And I said, * Lord, I believe it.' When the 
 leader came to me I told him, * Four months ago I was 
 a great sinner against God. Since that time I have 
 been justified freely by His grace, and while I have been 
 here this morning, the Lord has sanctified me wholly.' 
 When I had done telling what the Lord had done for 
 me, the leader said, * If you can believe it, it is so.' Then 
 I said, ' I can believe it.' When I had told him so, 
 what joy filled my heart I cannot find words to telL 
 After meeting was over, I had to go over a railroad, 
 and all around me seemed so full of glory that it dazzled 
 my sight. I had a joy unspeakable, and full of glory." 
 From one expression in this narrative some may dissent. 
 It seems injudicious, to say the least, to tell a believer that 
 he is sanctified if he believes he is, or to tell a penitetit 
 that he is saved if he only believes he is. There is a more 
 excellent way. But henceforth Billy lived not to himself, 
 but to Him who died for him and rose again. He set 
 the Lord always before him. His path was like thi 
 shining light, his own favourite figure, that shineth more 
 and more to the perfect day. Justified, sanctified, sealed, 
 were successive steps in his Christian experience, more 
 clear to him, perhaps, than to others. His faith did not 
 become feeble, but waxed stronger and stronger ; his 
 love to his Saviour grew in intensity till it became the 
 
108 THE KING'S SON. 
 
 absorbing passion of his soul ; and his hope brightened 
 into heavenly radiance and splendour. The freshness, 
 the gladsomeness, the delicacy and fragrance of the 
 richest Christian experience seemed always to be his 
 He soon reached, if we may borrow Bunyan's figure, the 
 " Delectable Mountains," just in the way to the Celestial 
 City, and which have " a pleasant prospect on every 
 side." Happily, too, he carefully avoided traversing " the 
 country of Conceit " which lieth near on the left hand, 
 or sleeping in the place where " Little-Faith " lost " moit 
 of his spending money.'' Doubts and fears, " gloomy 
 thoughts that rise," he knew but little about, " because 
 be lived further up," thus escaping the thick fogs and 
 mists which dull the hopes and becloud the prospects of 
 ordinary Christians. He was, so one of his friends tells 
 us, like a roe or young hart upon the mountains of Bether ; 
 on Zion he saw the glory of God between the cherubim ; 
 on Hermon the dew of God's blessing continually rested 
 on him ; on Carmel and Sharon he gathered flowers of 
 every hue and of richest fragrance, while on Tabor all 
 that was earthly and sorrowful in his experience was 
 transfigured into the heavenly. 
 
 One of the most blessed results of his deep piety was 
 his unfeigned hianility. His estimate of himself in com- 
 parison with other Christians was that he was a coarse 
 spar among beautiful specimens. He would say, " Most 
 gentlemen have a grotto " — in Billy's sense a collection 
 of mine specimens and other curiosities so arranged as to 
 make things beautiful in themselves still more beautiful — 
 in the centre of which " a coa^-se ould (old) spar would be 
 generally placed. So the Lora nas His grotto — the Church, 
 in which He places His own people as so many beauti- 
 ful specimens, of different sizes, colours, and degrees of 
 beauty, but all so arranged as to exhibit all the graces of 
 the Spirit, and consequently constituting a very grand 
 
AN **OULD^^ CORNTSH SPAR. lOg 
 
 and beautiful sight : " Billy being only the " coarse ould 
 spar among the rest to show their beauties to greater 
 advantage," but with a heart bounding with gratitude and 
 a tongue vibrating with praise because he was counted 
 worthy of a place among the people of God. 
 
 At public meetings the idea would sometimes come out 
 in a somewhat different fashion. The several speakers, 
 and their brilliant, eloquent, and powerful speeches, 
 reminded him of the precious stones with which the foun- 
 dations of the heavenly Jerusalem were garnished, but 
 the greatest wonder was that God, after having hewn these 
 out of different quarries, and made them polished stones 
 in His glorious temple, should pick up " an ould Cornish 
 spar " to set off their great and manifold excellences with 
 still greater effect. And then casting a look upward, a 
 still greater wonder was it that Jehovah, from " His 
 glorious high throne," should stoop to fetch up such an 
 " ould " spar from His footstool to increase the splendour 
 and magnificence of His palace ; and then He would 
 anticipate the time when he, a young Prince, a son of the 
 King of kings, should, in company with the seraphs, 
 traverse the golden streets, and make the heavenly arches 
 ring with his loud praises. Before he had finished, the 
 misers, laden with gold and sinking under its weight hke a 
 hippopotamus in a bed ofmud, might be told that they could 
 not be admitted except the keenest of angels were first 
 appointed to watch them continually, for fear they should 
 tear up the golden pavement to hug it to their bosoms in 
 the vain hope of filling that mighty void which God alone 
 can fill. His practical and sound advice to them would 
 be, " Use all your earthly possessions to make * lifting 
 steps' to reach the highest place possible in the New 
 Jerusalem, my happy home above." 
 
 Billyhs idea above reminds us of a beautiful passage in 
 the Sermons of the Rev. John Ker, but even by the side 
 
I lO THE KING S SON. 
 
 of his graceful eloquence, Billy's rude picture is not 
 without its charms. Mr Ker says, " There is a different 
 colour of beauty in different stones that are all of them 
 precious. One man may be burnishing to the sparkle 
 of the diamond, while another is deepening to the glow 
 of the ruby. For this reason there are such different 
 temperaments in Christian character, and varying cir- 
 cumstances in Christian life, that the foundation of the 
 wall of the city may be garnished with all manner ol 
 
 precious stones It is very beautiful to see how 
 
 the God, who has bound His world into a grand har- 
 mony by its very diversity, has arranged for this same 
 end in His Church by giving the members their different 
 faculties of work, — how the pure light that comes from 
 the sun breaks into its separate hues when it touches the 
 palace-house of Christ with its varied cornices and tur- 
 rets, till every colour lies in tranquil beauty beside its 
 fellow." 
 
 His humility was his safeguard all through life. An 
 aged person remembers hearing him say on one occa- 
 sion : " Soon after I was converted the devil said to me, 
 ' Billy Bray, you '11 be a great man ;' but I sunk into 
 nothing^ and in that way slipped through the deviP^ 
 hands. ^^ Another result of Billy's deep piety was his con- 
 tinual sense of dependetice upon Cod. The Lord's servants 
 without the Lord's presence are weak Hke other Men, 
 like Samson when he lost his locks. Here is one 
 ^ experience " of Billy's : <* When I was in the St Neot 
 Circuit, I was on the plan ; and I remember that one 
 Sunday I was planned at Redgate, and there was a 
 chapel full of people, and the Lord gave me great power 
 and liberty in speaking ; but all at once the Lord took 
 away His Spirit from me, so that I could not speak a 
 word : and this might have been the best sermon that 
 some of them ever heard. * What ! ' you say, * and look- 
 
" WITHOUT ME YE CAN DO NOTHTT7G." I I 1 
 
 Ing like a fool, and not able to speak ? ' * Yes/ for it was 
 not long before I said, 'I am glad I am stopped, and 
 that for three reasons. And the first is, To humble my 
 soul, and make me feel more dependent on my Lord, to 
 think more fully of Him, and less of myself. The next 
 reason is, To convince you that you are ungodly, for you 
 say we can speak what we have a mind to, without the 
 Lord as well as Math Him ; but you cannot say so now, 
 for you heard how I was speaking, but when the dear 
 Lord took away His Spirit I could not say another word ; 
 without my Lord I could do nothing. And the third 
 reason is. That some of you young men who are stand- 
 ing here, may be called to stand in the pulpit some day 
 as I am ; and the Lord may take His Spirit from you as 
 He has from me, and then you might say, * It is no good 
 for me* to try to preach or exhort, for I was stopped the 
 last time I tried to preach, and I shall preach no more.' 
 But now you can say, * I saw the poor old Billy Bray 
 stopped once like me, and he did not mind it, and told 
 the people that he was glad his dear Lord had stopped 
 him, and Billy Bray's dear Lord is my Lord, and I am 
 glad He stopped me too, for if I can benefit the people, 
 and glorify God, that is what I want.' I then spoke a 
 great while, and told the people what the dear Lord gave 
 me to say." 
 
 He kept the great object of life before him wherever he 
 went, whatever he did. Thus he writes, " I was a ked to go 
 to the re-opening of a chapel. We had large congregations. 
 I spoke in the forenoon, and brother Coles in the afternoon 
 and evening. He had the mighty power of God, and 
 preached two very good sermons. The people were very 
 kind in giving their money for repairing God's house. On 
 the Monday they had a tea-n:;eeting, and I h?d to speak 
 at three o'clock. The tea was at five. I believe we 
 should be better off if we were to Jast^ and i>ray^ and give 
 
r T 2 THR king's SON. 
 
 f 
 
 ; the money without a tea ; we should have more of the 
 glory in our souls. In the evening we had a speaking 
 meeting ; one of our friends took the chair. He called 
 on the superintendent to speak first ; and after that he 
 called on me. I told the people that the dear Lord had 
 given them a pretty chapel to worship in ; and now He 
 wanted good furniture, for bad furniture looks disgraceful 
 in a good house. I told them that good furniture for the 
 house of the Lord was sanctified souls. We must be 
 pardoned, sanctified, and sealed, and then we shall not 
 only be fit for the Lord's house on earth, but we shall be 
 g^ood furniture in heaveny 
 
 He continued to be in " labours more abundant." His 
 eye had a merry twinkle, his countenance an open and 
 benevolent expression, his voice a cheerful and pleasant 
 ring even unto the last. He took long journeys, held 
 frequent services, had regular times for fasting and prayer 
 — praise rather than prayer, especially at the last — and 
 witnessed glorious victories even unto the end. His visits 
 to the sick seemed more numerous even than before. The 
 infirmities of age had come upon him, but his ruling 
 passion had undergone no change, his spiritual ardour no 
 abatement. One of his last entries, as late as February 
 loth, 1868, was, " In the morning after I had breakfast, 
 bad as I was, I thought I would go to see some friends ; 
 and after calling on some of them, I went home. But I 
 had hard work to get home, I was so ill ; and my breath 
 was short." 
 
 Only a little time before he had been at Newlyn and 
 Crantock, labouring among the Wesleyans. There was 
 a revival in progress in the latter place, and in a revival 
 Billy was always at home. " The dear Lord made the 
 people very happy, and me happy with them." After the 
 meeting in the chapel was closed one night, many of the 
 people adjourned to a friend's house. There some were 
 
NO PEAR OF DEA TH. 1 1 3 
 
 singing, some praising God, and othe-s crying for mercy. 
 Six souls were set at blessed liberty, and the meeting was 
 continued till a very late hour. " We could do nothing 
 but praise," Billy said, " for the Spirit was poured out 
 in such a wonderful manner. I was as happy as I could 
 be and live. It was one stream of glory." He was very 
 weak in body then, but as the outward man decayed, the 
 inward man was renewed day by day. "/ think I shall 
 be home to Father's house s^on" was his happy thought, 
 his glorious hope. He returned home pale and exhausted. 
 He left it but once afterwards, when he went to Liskeard 
 to see his children. He got much worse, and appeared 
 like a man in the Ir-zt stage of consumption. On one 
 occasion he sent for a medical man, and when he arrived 
 he said : — " Now, doctor, I have sent for you because 
 they tell me you are an honest man, and will tell the 
 people the truth about their state." After the doctor had 
 examined him, Billy said : " Well, doctor, how is it ? " 
 " You are going to die." Billy instantly shouted " Glory! 
 glory be to God ! I shall soon be in heaven." He then 
 added in a low tone, and in his own peculiar way, 
 " When I get up there, shall I give them your compli- 
 tnents, doctor, and tell them you will be coming too ? " 
 This, the doctor says, " made a wonderful impression 
 upon him." It scarcely need be said that Billy retained 
 all his old love for shouting ; he even said if he had his 
 time to go over again he would shout len times as much, 
 in his affliction he was visited by persons of all denomina- 
 tions, who liberally contributed to his support. On 
 Friday, May 2 tnd, 1868, he came down stairs for the 
 last time. To one of his old friends, a few hours 
 before his death, who asked if he had any fear of 
 death, or of being lost, he said, "What ! me fear death! 
 me lost ! Why, my Saviour conquered death. If I was 
 to go down to hell I would shout glory ! glory ! to my 
 
 H 
 
114 THR KING S SOS. 
 
 blessed Jesus until I made the bottomless pit ring again, 
 and the miserable old Satan would say, * Billy, Billy, this 
 is no place for thee : get thee back.' Then up to heaven 
 I should go, shouting glory ! glory ! praise the Lord ! " 
 A little later he said, " Glory ! " which was his last word, 
 and in a little time his was the unspeakable joy to behold 
 that glor)' which Jesus had with the Father before the 
 world was. He was blessing and praising the Lord all 
 the day, so that heaven was not to him very different to 
 earth ; the soul, according to Wesley — 
 
 " The change shall scarcely know, 
 Made perfect first in love." 
 
 Glory in his experience had begun below, he enjoyed 
 wonderful foretastes of its fulness and fmition in heaven 
 above. He took his departure to the skies on Monday, 
 May 25th, 1868, having reached the age of seventy-four 
 years wiihin a few days. 
 
 On the Friday following a large number of his friends 
 and neighbours assembled at his house, when the corpse 
 was brought out into the yard, and two appropriate ad- 
 dresses delivered, one by Mr J. D. Balkwill, Billy's pas- 
 tor, and the other by Mr Thomas Hicks, an old and 
 much-attached friend. His remains were interred at 
 Baldhu Church, where they await the joyous resurrection 
 to eternal life. 
 
 Our task is all but completed, and if possible we 
 should, in a few closing words, like to set forth the 
 character of Billy Bray and the lessons of his life more 
 clearly and impressively than it has been done in the 
 preceding pages. But we fear to make the attempt, and 
 we rejoice to think that it can hardly be needed. The 
 most careless reader must, we imagine, have thought 
 while reading the foregoing account, that if Billy had not 
 been a Christian, he had been nothing ; and that the mere 
 
THE LESSONS OF HIS LIFE. I 1 5 
 
 form of religion, with which many are easily satisfied, must 
 have utterly failed to comfort and support him in his trials 
 and temptations. Billy Bray was so greatly honoured 
 and blessed himself, and made so great a blessing to 
 many, because his religion was a glorious reality, part 
 ftnd parcel of his daily life and experience. To him all 
 the promises of Christianity were true, all its privileges 
 to be enjoyed, all its duties to be performed, and all its 
 hopes and blessings to be realised. He was simple, 
 earnest, honest, devout. He belonged to the illustrious 
 " Peerage of Poverty." And he, like The Wall's-End 
 Miner, The Village Blacksmith, The Shepherd of 
 Salisbury Plain, shall delight and instruct multitudes 
 in days yet to come by the beautiful simplicity and 
 goodness of his character. Many have gone as safely 
 as he to the heaven above, who have not left behind them 
 a line of heavenly lights a trail of eternal glory ^ as he 
 has done, to be the guide of others, and to stimulate them 
 to follow him as he followed Christ. 
 
 At the request oi many of Billy's friends, we append, 
 with his consent, Mr Johns' poetical tribute to the memory 
 of Billy:— 
 
 A DIRGE for the Cornish Miner, 
 
 For Billy Bray the brave ; 
 He was not bom to honour. 
 
 Such as the world would crave ; 
 
Il6 THE KING'S SOI^, 
 
 But in the vale of labour 
 His lot it was to tread, 
 
 Till Jesus called him higher, 
 Where rests his weary head. 
 
 His fare was sometimes scanty'; 
 
 And earnest was the fight ; 
 But his dear Lord provided. 
 
 And with him all was right. 
 His dress was always homely — 
 
 His dwelling somewhat poor 
 But the presence of his Saviour 
 
 Made up for that, and more : 
 
 While in his face contentment 
 
 Was beaming like the sun ; 
 And so did it continue, 
 
 Till life and toil were done 
 His soul possessed of patience 
 
 The cross he meekly bore. 
 In honour of his Master, 
 
 Who did the like before. 
 
 He had a cottage-closet, 
 
 In which he loved to dwell, 
 In secret heart-up -breathing, 
 
 A duty prized he well ; 
 So God his Heavenly Father 
 
 Might, through him, ever be 
 Adored and highly honoured, 
 
 And he His glory see. 
 
THE CORNISH MINER. II7 
 
 The Bible was his Guide-book, 
 
 In which he daily read 
 Of Jesus Christ who died, 
 
 But not of Christ the dead ; 
 And drinking thus of water, 
 
 So living, full, and clear, 
 He every day had strength 
 
 To combat sin and fear. 
 
 In many a congregation 
 
 His voice was often heard, 
 Proclaiming free salvation. 
 
 Through Christ the living Word . 
 In manner, gentle, simple, 
 
 In spirit, kind and rare, 
 His life one holy Hving 
 
 Of humble, earnest prayer. 
 
 The aged and afflicted, 
 
 The mourner bending low, 
 Found in him a comforter, 
 
 Such as but few could know. 
 But now his work is ended, 
 
 His journey o'er and done ; 
 With earth he too has finished, 
 
 With heaven just begun. 
 
 Nor doubt ""ve for a moment, 
 
 He and the angels vie, 
 [n the land of sweetest pleasure, 
 
 Where goodness cannot die. 
 
t 1 8 THE king's son. 
 
 Over the swelling river, 
 
 Where fields are always green ; 
 
 With Billy Bray the famous, 
 
 How changed must be the scene I 
 
 High on the hills of Eden, 
 
 With angels on the wing ; 
 Shouting his favourite saying, 
 
 " I AM THE SON OF A KING ! ^ 
 Climbing the dew -clad mountain 
 
 Of God's eternal truth, 
 In all the vigour of manhood, 
 
 In all the beauty of youth 
 
 A basking in the fulness 
 
 Of that eternal day ; 
 Where beauty ever brightens, 
 
 And pleasures ne'er decay : 
 Where glory, fairer, greater, 
 
 Than ever warrior won, 
 Shall gild his path for ever, 
 
 E'en brighter than the siiii. 
 
 A dancing to the harpers, 
 
 On floors of solid gold ; 
 Where the music's ever new, 
 
 And the song never old : 
 A dweller with the angels — 
 
 At home among the blest ; 
 " Where the wicked cease from troubling. 
 
 And the weary are at rest." 
 
THE CORNISH MINER. I IQ 
 
 So much for his religion, 
 
 Saving in all her powers ; 
 Whate'er our rank or station, 
 
 God grant the like be ours ! 
 Then in this higher life-land, 
 
 We meet again ere long ; 
 Where tears shall all be wiped away^ 
 
 And every note a song 
 
 HAYMAN BROTHERS AND LH-I.Y, HATTON HOUSE, 
 FARRINGDON ROAD, LONDON, F.C. 
 
WORKS PUBLISHED AT 
 
 THE BIBLE CHRISTIAN BOOK-ROOM, 
 
 26, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.G. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF 
 
 THE KING'S SON; or, A Memoir of Billy Bray. 
 Price 2s. 6d. 
 
 '^...*' Her Majesty the Queen has graciously accepted 
 a copy of this work, and expressed herself as much 
 pleased with it, 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 ALL FOR CHRIST— CHRIST FOR ALL: Illus- 
 trated by the LiFE and Labours of William M. 
 Bailey. With life-like Portrait. By F. W. Bourne. 
 Sixth Thousand. Price is., cloth boards ; is. 6d., bevelled 
 boards, gilt edges. 
 
 " A better book of this kind than this we have seldom, if ever, fallen in 
 with. It is packed full of soul-stirring facts, and is all aglow with holy 
 feeling. No one can read it without catching something of its inspiration 
 and being the better for it. Mr. Bailey was a truly remarkable man, ' full 
 of faith and of the Holy Ghost,' strikingly like Billy Bray in the leading 
 features of his character, and not unlike our own Clowes and Batty and 
 Oxtoby, and he has found a fit biographer. Mr. Bourne's portrait of him 
 is so vivid and realistic that, once seen, it can never be forgotten." — 
 Primitive Methodist Magazifie. 
 
 Now Ready. Price is. 
 
 THE LOST MANUSCRIPT. By M. A. Paull. 
 
 "The story is a powerful one, and should be read in thousands of house- 
 holds for the common good." — Bolton Evening Guardian. 
 
 MILLER MANNING : A Story of Cornish Life. 
 
 By MATTHE^v Forester. Preface by F. W. Bourne. 
 Price Is., cloth boards, 
 
 "An admirable little book from beginning to end. Let all who want 
 something at once profitable, refreshing and racy, get it. . . The story is 
 well told in a simple and straightforward style, and is rigorously confined to 
 the man himself, without any moralising or reflections, such as often swell 
 the page<; anH annoy the reader. There is not a page to be skipped or 
 skimmed." — Rev. M. G. Pearsf, in Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine. 
 

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